Gone Batty
by Lilgrimmapple
Summary: Melody helps out at a bat conservation, and studies these creatures up close. However when one experiment goes wrong, Melody finds herself in the body of a bat and gets accidentally deported into Canada. Befriended by a young silverwing bat, Melody is faced with the brutal harshness of the 'survival of the fittest.' (Story follows the tv show).
1. Transformation

**Gone Batty**

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**Summary: **Melody helps out at a bat conservation, and studies these creatures up close. However when one experiment goes wrong, Melody finds herself in the body of a bat and gets accidentally deported into Canada. Befriended by a young silverwing bat, Melody is faced with the brutal harshness of the survival of the fittest. (Story follows the tv show).

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**A/N:** So I just recently watched the cartoon SIlverwing and I thought to myself...what on earth was wrong with me? My childhood missed out on such a fabulous series and I never even heard of the books! Naturally after becoming obsessed with something, I would want to write a fic about it. Enjoy!

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**Chapter 1: **Transformation

Melody Hale frowned deeply as she carefully inspected the little brown bat in her glove protected hands. The eighteen-year-old sighed in dismay as she diagnosed the white splotches on the mammal's muzzle as white nose syndrome. It was the third bat this month. "Poor thing." She murmured softly as she pet the sick bat's head gently with her index finger. The furry thing blinked it's beady black eyes at her, too ill to react properly.

The rest of the bats roosted on the cave like ceiling in the bat shelter room. She could tell that they were watching carefully, but they did not swoop down to attack her for handling one of their own. Melody reckoned that they knew what was going on - animals usually did. Bats are exceptionally intelligent creatures, they had to be. Melody's hazel eyes lowered back down to the sick bat in her hands. She turned around and closed the door behind her and quickly made her way down the corridor to the vet room.

"Daddy, I found another one." Melody said as she made her way to the man who was hand feeding another bat crickets with tweezers.

Her father looked up at her from behind his round glasses and the skin between his eyebrows wrinkled as he caught sight of the animal in his daughter's hands. "Not another one." He sighed and jerked his head towards an empty oxygen tank. "Put it in there, Melody. I'll take a look at it once this little one finishes eating."

Melody did as she was told and gently placed the little brown bat onto a soft blue towel in the tank before closing shut its lid. "Get well, kiddo." She told the bat, tracing the glass with her fingertips.

"How is your zoology report coming along?" Her father asked without taking his eyes off the small animal that he was currently handling.

Melody shrugged, "Fine I guess. I'm writing about bats and their migration to hibernaculum right now, so it's nothing difficult."

"You should have Elliot proofread it."

"Huh?!" Melody blinked incredulously at her father, barely believing what he just suggesting. "Dad, no. He's unbearable! Every time he checks my papers, he makes me rewrite them in such a way that it might as well be written in a different language! He once said that I might as well be penultimate in my class with the way I word my sentences! What does penultimate mean anyway?"

"His vocabulary is just widely expanded, Melody. The more reason why he's the best person to go to check your paper." He either ignored her question or took it as rhetorical. Either way, it just made Melody more sure that the word was an insult.

The brunette groaned in dismay and made her way out of the room. "Thanks a lot dad." She stressed out sarcastically.

"You're welcome, honey." Came the nonchalant response before she slammed the door shut. Honestly, it wasn't the only reason why she was unwilling to go see Elliot. He seemed to take pleasure in making her feel that her intelligence is of the inferior level. It wouldn't make her the least bit surprised that he got that large ego from skipping a few grades while he was back in grade school.

Regretting this decision greatly, Melody pushed the door to the lab open. There was about a dozen scientists working in silence with their microscopes and writing stuff down on their clipboards. The only person who was not working in silence was...surprise, surprise… Elliot Gray. He was messing around with some strange contraption that looked like it wasn't supposed to be invented yet.

Elliot had just graduated from his university and was now working full time at their bat conservatory lab. His black hair was long, reaching his shoulders and was unkempt. His bangs were in a dire need of a trim since they completely covered his eyes. It was a mystery that he could see anything behind them. His lab coat was wrinkled and Melody wondered if he even ate anything that day. Or that week for that matter. He was unreasonably thin.

Melody sighed and shook her head. "Might as well get this done and over with." She stuffed her hands in her coat pockets and trudged over to where Elliot was working. "Um - hey." She greeted the young man with disinterest.

If Elliot heard her, he did not show it for he continued muttering to himself and rolled his chair over to the laptop nearby. He was completely absorbed in his work to notice the girl. He typed a few formulas into excel before the computer signaled him that the battery was dying. Continuing to mutter endlessly to himself, Elliot ducked under the desk to find the plug for the charger.

"I said _HEY_!"

The raven-haired scientist jumped a foot in the air, hitting the bottom of the desk with his head with a loud bang. Elliot hissed in pain and rubbed the back of his head roughly, trying to rid of the ache. He glared from the corner of his eye at the brunette's not-so-innocent smile. "You couldn't give me a heads up before you startled me like that?"

Melody grinned and ran her fingers through her layered shoulder-length hair, "I think you already got your heads up."

Elliot sighed and stood up, using the desk to support his weight. "Your perspicaciousness for technicality never ceases to astound me." He put back on his glasses that had fallen off during the accident. Seriously - what was the point of them if his hair would just block his line of vision anyway?

"My what?"

"Look it up in a dictionary." Elliot growled in annoyance and went back to typing on his computer. "What do you want?"

"Just wanted to know if the cure for the white nose syndrome is made yet." Melody was not about to ask Elliot to proofread her essay. No siree. "I found another bat infected with it."

"Trust me. If I managed to make an antidote, there wouldn't be any sick bats with us right now." Elliot grumbled while pinching the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. He stiffened and squeezed his eyes shut when Melody reached over and pulled his bangs up. "Wh-"

"Perhaps if you could see what you were doing, maybe you would have made one by now." Melody held back a grin when he swatted her hands away and quickly brushed his bangs back over his face.

"I can see just fine."

"Aren't there rules that state that you have to keep your hair tied back when working with science tools?" Melody continued to deliberately irritate her occasional tutor. He was so high strung that she couldn't help but try and make him loosen up a bit. She couldn't remember if there was a time that he even smiled. "You know- safety hazards and all."

Elliot took in a deep breath and slowly turned to face the teenager. "Don't you have friends you could bother instead? Why are you always loitering around at the conservatory?"

Melody shrugged, "I'm doing a project about bats in my zoology class. Why? Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"What gave you that idea?" Sarcasm was almost oozing out of his mouth as Elliot crossed his arms.

Melody faked a pout. Realizing that Elliot was really close to kicking her out of the lab, she decided to lay off with the attitude. She sighed, her expression changing back to normal. Her eyes caught the sight of different colored vials that were sticking inside the strange machine that Elliot was working with. "What is that?" She asked with genuine interest as she approached it.

"That is my attempt in making the cure." The young man seemed to relax at the change of subject. "Each vial contains DNA from various healthy bats that could be susceptible to the disease. They are all mixed with certain ingredients in which I am almost certain would help create immunoglobulins-" Elliot caught the confused expression on Melody's face and immediately simplified the word. "-_antibodies _that can help rid their body of the bacteria or any other viruses."

The brunette hummed with intrigue as she leaned in for a closer look.

Elliot continued, "They all seem to respond well against the bacteria-" he lightly slapped Melody's hand away as she attempted to poke a vial with her finger "except I have yet to officially decide if they are safe for use."

"I see." Melody rubbed her hand and walked around the machine a bit.

"And if they are, then this machine can be used to inject the bats with the cure, and then they'll be homeward bound."

"What's wrong with injecting the bat with a typical syringe by hand?" Melody questioned.

Elliot shrugged. "Nothing. I just happened to build that feature in for the hell of it."

Melody rolled her eyes, "Geek." She muttered under her breath. Leave it to Elliot to create something completely unnecessary just for the sake of creating it.

* * *

The teenager gave a hearty yawn as she closed her laptop, finishing her essay for the day. She blinked sleepily out the window to see that it was twilight. It was about an hour before the conservatory closed for the day. Stretching her back, she felt it crack a bit as it released it's tension. "Well," she said to herself, "I guess I better get myself home." She packed her laptop into her backpack and walked out of her father's empty office. Whistling to herself, Melody noticed that the light in the laboratory was still on. Usually the lab closed earlier than the rest, so curiosity naturally took hold over the girl as she peaked into the room.

It came to little to no surprise for Melody when she saw Elliot being the only person in the lab. "Of course…" she whispered softly before she allowed herself in. Getting into better view, Melody quieted her footsteps when she noticed that the young man was fast asleep against the table; his head cushioned in his crossed arms. Common sense told the girl that the wise thing to do was to wake him up before he ended up getting locked in the building for the night. No matter how much she would be amused by that…

Before she could shake him awake, another wave of curiosity made her pause. Melody glanced at his bang covered face. 'I wonder why he constantly insists on hiding his eyes all the time.' The teen carefully reached out her hand and as gently as she could, she parted his inky black bangs to the side. Musing silently to herself that he looked no different than the average person, she reached for his glasses next. He had a soft and nice looking face. He could use a bit of a tan though. Melody was certain that if he wore his hair parted to the side or had it tied back and traded his glasses for contact lenses, he would actually be quite handsome. Melody didn't even have time to slap herself for thinking such a thing when Elliot's eyes shot open. His irises were red!

Startled, the two of them jumped back from each other. Losing her grip on his glasses, Melody tripped backwards and barely caught herself as she jammed into something behind her. She didn't notice that her elbow hit some sort of button and the machine behind her began to hum.

Elliot had shot up from his seat and accidentally stepped on his own glasses in the panic he was in as he tried to cover up his eyes. "Wh- no!" He exclaimed in horror as he realized what he had done. He felt for the glasses on the ground and his fear was confirmed as he felt the sharp broken glass between his fingers. "No-no-no-no!" His mouth twisted into a furious snarl as he glared up at Melody. "_YOU_!"

"I'm sorry." Melody whimpered, feeling a little bit more than afraid. She couldn't move from her spot. "I- I didn't mean to…" Boy she was in trouble. She had annoyed the crap out of Elliot before, but she had never seen him this pissed off ever.

"Did you see?" Elliot breathed in deeply, struggling to keep his temper under control.

"Huh?" was Melody's intelligent reply. She was too distracted to notice that the humming was getting louder.

"You couldn't have left my face well enough alone!" Elliot cried out at her, making her flinch back. "Are you happy now?!"

Melody trembled, Elliot was terrifying when he was angry. She felt like she had just took a trip into _The Phantom of the Opera _and pulled off the mask. She always thought that Christine was stupid for doing that...but here she was, no better than that woman. "I'm sorry." That was the only thing she could say. "I'm really- OW!"

Melody pushed herself away from the machine behind her and pulled her stinging hand closer to her chest. She blinked away the tears that were starting to form in the corner of her eyes to examine the back of her hand. There was a red spot where a needle had pierced through; a speck of blood was oozing out. The humming died down.

"What's wrong?" Elliot's voice was still angry, but the anger was simmering out and concern began to replace it. Without his glasses, Elliot couldn't quite see what happened.

"Something pricked me…" Melody answered as she looked back to see the very same contraption that Elliot had invented. Crap! Was she just injected with bat DNA?

"Hold on." The raven haired scientist got up from his knees, dropping the glass back to the floor and turned to his desk, trying to find the right drawer where he kept his spare glasses.

A cold shiver passed through Melody's body and her heart began to race. Something was wrong with her. She was starting to see double and dizziness started to overtake her. "E-Elliot?" She croaked out and sat on the ground, trying to keep balance as the room was spinning around. "I feel sick…"

She could hear him scuffling by his desk, cursing slightly as he put on his second pair of glasses. His footsteps rushed over to her and she felt his large warm hand grip her shoulder, holding her in place. She felt him take her injured hand in his other one to examine it. Melody suddenly lurched forward as violent spasms began to shake her body. "Elliot!" She was beginning to really freak out. She felt herself _changing! _It felt like her insides were being compressed together and her limbs ached terribly.

"Melody!" She could hear Elliot exclaim as his hold on her tightened. "Hold on Melody! _Help! Someone call the ambulance! Please!_"

It was too late though, Melody felt herself changing far too fast. Her body was shrinking, her skin prickled and itched horribly as fur began to pierce through. Elliot's hands were suddenly becoming humongous.

"What the-?!" Elliot gasped out.

Melody was struck with a panic attack. She began fighting to get out of his grip and Elliot just tried to get a better hold of her. "Melody stop! Calm down!" But his words made little sense to her in the state she was in. All she wanted was to get away! Delirious and confused, Melody bit his hand as hard as she could. Elliot yelped in pain and let go of her.

Instinct being louder than reason right now, it instructed her to stretch out her arms and flap them. She did as she was told and she was suddenly airborne. Still hurt, scared, dizzy and confused, Melody had no idea what she was doing or where she was going. She ignored Elliot's fading voice calling for her and just continued flying. She felt herself fly into obstacles more than once, and that just made her panic rise even more. '_Please! Oh God please make it stop!' _

Her prayers were answered the moment when she was caught struggling in something that felt like a net. A hand grabbed her and she felt something sharp pierce her back and she squeaked out in pain. Seconds after, her vision went black.

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**A/N: Dunn..Dunn..Dunnnn….what now? Only the next chapter will tell. I had to go into some research about bats and other stuff to somewhat make me seem like I know what the heck I'm talking about ( _ ). I hope you enjoyed this chapter! See yah! **


	2. Welcome to Canada

**Chapter 2**: Welcome to Canada

The first thing that Melody was aware of when she came to was a draft. She shivered and wrapped her arms tighter around her body, bringing her blanket closer to herself. She was sure that she kept her window shut at night. It was October after all. She didn't want to get out of her warm bed and close it. The sun wasn't even up yet! The girl sighed in agitation when the breeze stroked her skin. "Ok, fine..." She forced her eyes open and wiped away the sleep with her hands. Her surroundings coming into focus, Melody blinked in confusion. Why was the world upside down?

...

Upside down?!

"Eeeeyyyaaaahhhh!" Melody shrieked at the top of her lungs as she realized that she was hanging upside down from a pine tree branch. Swiftly with the strength she did not know that she possessed, Melody pulled herself upward and clung to the branch like her life depended on it. "High! This is very..._very _high!" As one would guess it - Melody did not like heights. "How on earth...?!" She gasped as she examined how high she was up from the ground. Her vision began to swim around and she shut her eyes tightly, turning away from the ground.

Ok. How the hell did she end up hanging upside down...in a tree...in the middle of a forest? The last thing that she remembered was going home for the evening. She was curious about how Elliot looked without his hair in his face - then he woke up and got angry. Then she got stabbed by Elliot's crazy contraption? Huh?

Melody shook her head. Why was that part of her memory all fogged up?

No. This wasn't getting her anywhere. Melody gulped and opened her eyes again. She would have to find a way to get back down. Somehow...

Melody slowly crawled towards the trunk of the tree. Her arms shook from the shock that she received upon waking up. "It's ok Melody." The girl tried to comfort herself. "No big deal. You climbed trees before in your childhood."

_'Yeah. And broke your arm in the process.' _

Melody squeaked and hugged the branch above her again. "Don't remind me!" She whimpered to herself, heart racing.

A muffled laugh came from above her, distracting her from her current goal of getting down. A masculine voice called down to her. "Hey, are you ok?"

"Huh?" Melody peeked over the side of the branch to try and spot the owner of the voice. "Who's there?" She tried to sound demanding, but her voice was wavering too much.

Whoever it was chuckled again before answering. "Try looking up from the other side of the branch."

Hesitantly, the girl did as she was directed and shifted around to the other side as much as she was able. Looking up she saw a light blue furry face grinning at her in amusement. It was a bat.

...

...

"Hi!" The bat greeted her cheerfully while roosting upside down above her.

Melody's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets and she lost her grip on the branch. She yelped in surprise, and would have fallen to her doom if the young bat did not catch her arm in his winged fingers.

"Whoops!" He pulled her back up onto the branch she was clinging to. "Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." The bat genuinely appologized to her before landing next to her. He watched her curiously as she wrapped her arms around the branch again. "Are you alright?" He asked her once more.

"You can talk." Melody blurted out dumbly, receiving an odd look from the bat. "A bat is talking to me." Ok, what kind of drugs did Elliot put in those shots?

The bat scratched his ...blonde hair?...in confusion. "Umm- yeah?"

"H-how is that possible?" Melody stuttered, not sure what the hell was going on anymore. "Bats can't talk!"

The young bat raised an eyebrow and crouched down to her level. "Well, you can talk too, can't you?" He pointed his claw at her nose, tapping it softly.

"Yes, but I am not a b-" that was when Melody looked at herself for the first time. Horror swallowed her whole when she realized that her arms had long silver wings attached to them, covered in dark blue fur. Much darker than the other bat's fur which was more of a light silvery blue. She had a fuzzy white underbelly and a thick mane of brown hair that enveloped her head, shoulders and chest. Her left wrist was covered in a silver band. It was strange that she didn't even notice that the winged mouse that she was now having a conversation with was about the same size as her.

"I'm a bat!" Melody freaked, stretching out her wings. "How did this happen?! I'm not supposed to be a bat! I'm a human!"

"Um...?" The other bat backed away slightly, not sure what to make of this.

Melody began flapping her arms about while ranting, "This has to be a dream unless-oh!" She gasped and clasped her hands to her cheeks. "Elliot!" She snarled as the past events began to piece back together.

"Who?"

"Elliot!" She exclaimed at the pale blue bat as if she expected him to know who she was raging about. "This is his fault! Him and his stupid invention! It's because of his machine that I'm now like this!" She pulled at her hair, feeling understandably frustrated. "That DNA probably turned me into a bat and now he banded and stranded me in the middle of nowhere!"

The other bat blinked as half of the words flew over his head. "Ok..." He said slowly, possibly questioning the sanity of the female bat before him. "I can see that you need help." He moved closer to her.

"I'm not crazy!" Melody snapped at him.

The young bat raised his arms up in defense. "I never said that." He stated, trying to calm her down. "It's ok. I believe you."

Melody raised a brow, not sure if she believed him. "You...do?"

The bat shrugged, "It explains why you are clinging to the branch like a cat. Plus, I have no idea what some of those words that you said meant." He watched as the ex human sighed and seemed to grow slack on the branch. "I just thought maybe I could help you."

"How?" Melody asked.

"The leader of my colony is very wise. I think she might have an idea of what to do. And since you are also a silverwing, I think she would let you stay with us in the meantime." The bat offered.

Melody assumed that a silverwing was his term for a silver haired bat. Something that both of them were.

"By the way, my name is Shade." He held out his hand like a normal human would to shake.

Melody was not sure why a bat would shake...hands? Wings? Oh screw logic. She's a human girl trapped in a bat's body. Melody accepted his hand and shook it. "Melody." She replied softly. She made a note that Shade was smaller than her, but not by much. He still seemed to be around her age. Perhaps he would be about seventeen in human years?

A toothy smile spread across Shade's face and his black eyes glittered in excitement. "Melody, huh? Well, common Melody!" He flapped his wings and hovered over her. "The sun is almost up, so we should get going."

Melody's heart sank. "Um- by 'get going'...you mean fly?" She reluctantly asked. She did not like where this was going.

"Duh." Shade rolled his eyes. "You don't expect us to crawl there, do you?"

"But-" Melody peered over the edge of her perch before quickly flinching back, "I can't." Her heart was starting to race again.

Shade flew closer to her with a surprised expression. "You...really weren't kidding, were you? You can't fly? But...how did you get all the way up here then?"

Good question. "Before now, I was human and humans do not fly." And here she thought that he said that he believed her.

Shade looked towards the brightening horizon with a concerned look in his eyes. Dawn was approaching fast. He turned back to his new friend with a grim frown. "You will have to learn now."

"What? No!" Melody dug her claws into the bark of the tree. "I think I prefer to stay here..."

"You can't be caught outside when the sun is out!" Shade landed next to her again and grabbed her by the shoulders. "The owls will kill you." The shadow that formed below his eyes told Melody that he was not joking around. "You will have to try."

Melody began to tremble and tears began to well up, "But Shade...I'm scared." She held tighter to the tree.

"Hey." He shook her shoulders gently and smiled reassuringly. "It's going to be ok. I will be here with you every flap of the way. If you fall, I will catch you." He spread his wings out in example.

Melody glanced at the boy bat and felt even less reluctant to believe him as she calculated his smaller stature and wingspan. Could he even bear her weight? Shade caught her eyeing his size and folded his wings shut with a scowl. "I _am_ stronger than I look." He growled with insistence. The way he said that made Melody wonder if he used that sentence to death. It looked like he had quite a size complex.

She shook her head. "No. I'm sorry Shade...but I can't do this." Melody squeaked as Shade plucked her claws off the tree.

"A grounded bat is a dead bat." He stepped behind her and pulled both her wings open. "Look, your wings are bigger than mine. If I managed to survive my first fall, then you will too. Without a doubt."

Hold on! This was happening too fast! "Wait, Sha-AAAAAADE!" Melody did not have a chance to finish when Shade pushed her off the branch. Everything flew past her in a blur. It was miraculous that she did not hit another branch on the way down. In her panic, Melody flapped her wings out of synch. Oh God, she was going to crash!

A soft body pushed up against her belly. "You are flapping your wings out of turn!" She heard Shade grunt as he attempted to keep her up. "Stop thinking that you are human. You _can _fly!"

"But I _am_ human!"

"Not anymore, you're... not!" Shade panted as he flapped his wings fiercely. He was struggling despite his big talk from earlier. "Common... Melody. Stop doubting...and believe in yourself!"

Somehow, Shade's words triggered something. Closing her eyes shut, Melody concentrated in getting her rhythm synchronized. She felt the skin of her wings stretch out as they caught the breeze. Before long, the struggling support below her disappeared, but she was no longer falling. Hesitantly, Melody cracked one hazel eye open. She was flying?

Shade swooped around her, laughing with glee. "Woooohooo! Yeah!" He positioned himself next to her and shot her a triumphant smile. "I told you could do it!"

Looking down, Melody saw her own reflection in the stream that they were currently passing over. "I am...flying." She could barely believe it. This was like a dream. A smile slowly spread across her face and laughter began to bubble up in her chest. "I am flying!" She yelled before she faltered slightly. "Woah!"

Shade was there in an instant and steadied her. "Yes, you are." He chuckled at her and she smiled back at him gratefully. "You just need a bit of practice is all." He glanced at the brightening horizon from the corner of his eye and sped up so that he was in front. "Common, the sun's almost up. My home is this way."

Melody nodded and followed after him. All the while, she took in her surroundings. Everything was lush and green! Unlike the big city in Orlando, Florida. Wait...is that a moose? Melody closed her eyes for a second and looked again. Yup. Most definitely a moose. Just how far up north was she? Aren't moose native to...

"Canada?" Melody muttered to herself incredulously. "I'm in Canada?!"

"What was that?" Shade looked back over his shoulder at her.

"Nothing!" Melody responded quickly before going back to her deep thinking. Boy, she was a long way from home. She was in a completely different country. How was she going to find her way back? Or more importantly- back to being human again. She thought of her parents. Did they know that she was gone? Were they out searching for her?

"We're here."

"Huh?" Melody snapped out of her daze and saw that they were nearing a hallow tree that stood on the edge of a tiny cliff that hovered over a lake. She watched as Shade dove down and flew into the hole of the trunk. Suddenly nervous on her landing, Melody followed as carefully as she could, but the moment she flew through the crevice, she smacked right into Shade.

"Oomph!" They both landed with a thump, with Shade lying face down and Melody on her back on top.

"Sorry!" Melody squeaked, immediately getting off and offering him a hand up.

Shade accepted the offer. "Looks like we need to work on your landing."

Melody pulled him to his feet with an embarrassed smile, and brushed the dust off her fur. "Ya think?"

"But not bad." Shade appraised her before smirking and crossing his wings. "However if I weren't there to catch you, you would be a flat bat by now." He laughed when Melody stuck out her tongue at him. He motioned her to follow him deeper into the tree.

Walking in deeper, Melody found herself standing in the very center of the tree looking up in awe. All around her were dozens of other silver haired bats staring down at her with curiosity. "Wow..." Was all that she could breath out. The other bats whispered to each other, most likely wondering who she was.

Shade seemed quite pleased with her reaction and motioned around with his wing. "Welcome to Tree Haven, Melody."

* * *

Elliot was hunched over his desk in his apartment with his hands curled in his inky black hair. It had been two days since that accident occurred. His mind was buzzing relentlessly as he tried to come up with a plan of what to do. Melody's parents were in hysterics. Their daughter had just suddenly mysteriously gone missing. There has been questioning from the police and he answered every question to the best of his ability.

In other words, Elliot lied.

He groaned in frustration and carelessly dropped his upper body onto the desk and he blindly glared at the opposite wall in his room. How could he tell _anyone _that his machine had accidentally transformed the girl into a bat? He would be sent off to a psych ward in an instant. Guilt kept Elliot from sleeping and eating all that time. He could not help but feel responsible for what had happened. She was in _his _lab at the time with _him _in the room. It was _his _invention that she had set off, and he was too engrossed with his ocular problems to notice anything! And now she was missing from the conservatory all together.

"_Water?" _ A small penguin robot that he had made a year ago waddled up onto his desk carrying a tray with a glass of water.

"Not now DD." Elliot muttered disheartenedly. Good God. It wasn't until now that he had noticed that he had inadvertently named that penguin after her too. Melo_DY_. What was he thinking?

After ten minutes, the robot returned with fish soup. "_Soup?" _

"I said no, DD" he replied louder, starting to get annoyed.

"_...Soup!" _The penguin insisted, bouncing at the word, causing the bowl to clatter softly and its contents to plop about.

Sighing, Elliot slammed his hands on the table and pulled himself up to glare at his persistent creation. "You Dumb Droid, I said-" Elliot didn't finish his sentence when the penguin sharply tipped the tray over and the bowl flew into his face, spilling the warm soup all over his face, hair and clothes.

"..."

The penguin flapped its metallic black flippers in agitation. "_Ellie! Eat!" _

Elliot slowly plucked the bowl out of his face as calmly as he was able. Broth trickled down his face, his hair smelly and moist covered half his face with a black soggy curtain. He took in a deep breath and let it out. 'I should have just gotten a goldfish...' He thought resentfully. He was sure that he programed DD to fix his computers and not to be his nursemaid. "Fine." He got up from his seat and placed the now empty bowl back on the tray. "I'll take a shower first, then I'll eat whatever you get me."

The penguin clapped its flippers in triumph, grabbed the tray and waddled down the mini steps off the table. Its rubber feet plopped loudly against the wooden floor. In the meantime it grabbed Elliot's iPod that was lying nearby and popped it into the usb port in it's back. Pressing play on the touch screen that appeared on its belly, DD cheerfully began to play a certain South Park song on its way to the kitchen.

_Times have changed_

_Our kids are getting worse_

_They won't obey the parents_

_They just want to fart and curse!_

Elliot grabbed a towel from his drawer all the while grumbling something about stupid penguins downloading music off of YouTube. He didn't even like South Park. He couldn't comprehend for one single moment on why his invention had such a strange taste in music.

_Should we blame the government?_

_Or blame society?_

_Or should we blame the images on TV?_

_No, blame Canada!_

_Blame Canada!_

The young man's hand paused inches away from his bathroom's doorknob. Suddenly a thought occurred. 'Canada? Weren't we freeing a few silver haired bats up there that day?'

Melody was turned into a silver haired bat. Was it possible that she was accidentally-

Elliot nearly tripped over himself as he ran back over to his computer and he turned it on. He skimmed through the list of bats that were banded two days ago and deported into Canada and their exact location. Finding the page he was looking for, he saw the last one was banded that same evening she turned into a bat. Elliot sucked in a deep breath. Melody was dropped off in Canada. Joy.

Rubbing the back of his neck, a list of options of what to do ran through his head...and he didn't exactly like any of them. Grimacing, Elliot googled for the nearest airport flight times to Canada.

* * *

A/N: Okie dokie. The start of the first episode will happen next chapter. Until next time.


	3. Acceptance and the First Lesson

******Gone Batty**

* * *

******Chapter 3****: **Acceptance and First Lesson

* * *

Melody felt both nervous and thrilled to find herself in the home of a bat colony. Thrilled because she had studied bats all her life and now she was among them. Nervous because every winged creature inside the hollow tree was staring at her. She gulped silently. Each bat seemed to react differently to her arrival. The younger bats were clearly curious and some of them itched to try and get a closer look at her. It was the same reaction Shade had upon meeting her. The adult females were more guarded; a few of them even glared at her, not too happy of having a stranger in their home. The older bats seemed either curious or just didn't really pay her any mind. It was as if after one look at her, they decided that her arrival wasn't much of a big deal.

"Shade, you're home!" One adult female with orange hair flew down to them. She gave Melody one long look before turning to Shade. "And who is this?"

Shade smiled brightly at the female, "This is my friend Melody, mom. I found her stuck in a tree not too far from here."

Melody looked over at Shade with surprise. _Mom? ...Friend?_

"And look! She has a band just like Frieda." Shade lifted Melody's left wing to show his mother. There were more murmurs that came from above. Melody suddenly felt self conscious and pulled her arm away, hiding the silver band. She felt Shade's mother's eyes on her and kept her own eyes lowered, feeling shy.

"She's all alone, mom." Shade continued. "I just thought that Frieda might be able to help her."

Melody risked a glance back up at Shade's mother and was surprised to see her smile kindly at her. "Any friend of my son's is welcome here."

The girl felt her lips quirk up in return. "Thank you...Mrs..."

Shade's mother gave a small tinkling laugh, and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Please, call me Ariel."

Melody felt her nervousness melt away at Ariel's pleasant response and nodded. She looked over at Shade who grinned back at her.

Ariel spread her large wings open and motioned gently to both of them. "It is morning. Both of you get some sleep. You can ask for an audience with Frieda in the evening."

'Sleep during the day?' Melody frowned slightly at that. She always got nasty headaches if she took naps during the day. However it didn't look like she would have much of a choice here. As long as she was a bat - she would have to at least get used to the new schedule.

"Alright, mom." Shade took into the air before hovering near Melody, "You can roost next to us. We have lots of room."

'Wait...roost?' That meant that Melody would have to sleep upside down. Melody winced at the idea. She was not sure that she was ready for _that _much of a change just yet. The thought of possibly falling in her sleep was not a pleasant one. She was not even sure how she managed it the first time around. Just the memory of waking up in the forest gave her the shivers.

"I don't know if I can sleep upside down." Melody blurted out, earning a surprised look from Shade's mother and the young bat himself.

"Sure you can. I've seen you roost in that pine tree." Shade brushed off Melody's remark like it was no big deal causing Melody to sigh. Sleeping upside down was probably second nature to him. No, she was sure it was.

"But I don't know how I even got up there, remember?" She stressed out, suddenly feeling rather tired of this conversation.

"What is this now?" Ariel pushed her way into the conversation, she couldn't believe what she was hearing. "You do not know how to roost?"

Melody bit her lip, "um...I..." What could she say? Suddenly, admitting that she was a human did not seem like such a good idea. Her fur prickled up as she could still feel the stares of the other bats. She could hear them whispering amongst themselves.

_"Did you hear that?"_

_"She can't roost?"_

_"What kind of a bat is she?"_

Melody shivered and lowered her eyes to the floor. What could she possibly say? She would most likely be chased out if her true nature was revealed.

Shade watched Melody silently with a frown, noticing her current distress. His eyes softened slightly for a second before he turned to his mother. "She was living with the humans ever since she was born, mom." He answered instead.

The girl's head shot up at Shade's unexpected words with a silent gasp. What was he doing?! The whispers from above grew silent.

"Melody never got to learn how to fly, roost properly...or hunt-" he side glanced over at Melody to gain confirmation, to which she nodded with mute confusion, before continuing, "under her circumstances." Hold on...was he helping her? Ariel covered her mouth before looking at the girl with sympathy. Melody avoided her eyes, not feeling very happy about deceiving her like this, even though it wasn't _exactly _a lie. Luckily Ariel did not see it as guilt, but as shame for what Shade had claimed to have happened.

"Oh, poor dear."

"I'm sorry, Melody." Shade landed next to her and took her hand in his. "I know you probably feel embarrassed about all of this. I should have been more sensitive to your problems." His tone was sorrowful, but Melody caught the mischievousness glint in his dark eyes. She cocked an eyebrow and he secretly winked in return, urging her to play along.

"Is this true?" Ariel walked over to Melody, looking like she wanted to hug the younger bat.

"...Yes." Melody replied before glancing up. The rest of the bats no longer seemed as suspicious of her anymore. Instead their eyes held a degree of pity for the young bat who was held in human captivity her whole life. The girl decided that she preferred pity to possible hostility. "Which is why I would prefer to sleep on the ground. At least for today." She added quickly before Ariel protested. "I will learn...it's just so much has happened, and I feel more secure on the ground."

Ariel looked doubtful but thankfully she did not press the matter any further. "Alright, dear. If that is what you wish. Sleep well." She looked at Shade meaningfully for a moment before flying to roost somewhere. The rest of the colony took that as a sign that they should get to sleep as well now that the show was over.

Melody sank to her knees with a shaky sigh. That was more nerve wracking than she thought it would be. She blinked as Shade sat in front of her with concerned eyes. "You ok?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know." She admitted as she wrapped her dark wings around herself. "This whole bat thing...I'm still having a hard time accepting it." Melody sniffed slightly, starting to feel homesickness to settle in. "Thank you...for helping me."

"Hmm?" Shade tilted his head at her words.

"You don't even know me, and yet you already did so much for me." Melody closed her eyes and hugged herself tighter. "You even called me a friend without a second thought."

The adolescent bat smiled reassuringly. "Well, that's because we _are_friends! You are fun to talk to." His smile turned into a teasing grin as he leaned in closer, "Also your reactions to everything are funny."

Melody huffed in fake offense and rolled her hazel eyes, "Glad to see that my predicament amuses you so." She cracked a small smile and giggled when her new friend laughed.

Calming their giggles, the two young bats bid each other sweet dreams and Melody curled up in her wings as Shade flew to roost with his mother. Thoughts of her parents began to fill her mind. She wondered if they were out there looking for her. Elliot probably was celebrating now that she was gone. Her face turned sour at the idea and ducked her head beneath her wings. Oh who cares about him anyway? Melody was so lost in her bitter daydreams that she did not notice that eventually they transitioned into actual dreams as she finally fell asleep.

* * *

_"No! No! No! No!"_

Elliot clenched his teeth as he dragged himself towards his front door with his luggage in hand with some difficulty. The penguin bot that clung to the back of the fabric of his jeans was having a mysterious case of separation anxiety. "Let go, DD."

"_No!" _DD squeaked like a stubborn toddler, refusing to let go.

"I will be back soon! Stop acting like a spoiled brat!" Elliot lifted his leg and tried to shake DD off, but that robot was as attached to him like a super magnet. "Look, I called up Aunt June and she said that she will be here to look after you."

The white screen on DD's belly flashed a giant red 'X'. That news just made DD even more upset. "_NO!" _

"DD..." Elliot growled warningly. He leaned down and tried to pry him off with his hand all the while hopping, trying to get to the door. "I have had just about enough of- AH!"

The front door swung open, sending Elliot sprawling to the floor with his luggage on top. He groaned and rubbed his back as he squinted into the daylight. In the doorway stood a rather stout and large woman with short curly black hair, tiny eyes and an outfit that barely fit her. She spread her arms out with unsuppressed joy at the sight before her. "DD!" She exclaimed.

The sound that the robot made could not be described better than a scream of terror. Without much of an effort, the woman tore him off of Elliot and squished him in between her giant breasts in a huge hug. "Oh DD! You have no idea how much I have missed you! How have you been doing, you cutie pie? Mmm- I could just eat you up! You are so adorable!"

Elliot winced as he stood up and fixed his glasses. "Hi...Aunt June." He greeted with a monotone. "You are just in time." He didn't have to time to gasp for air when his aunt grabbed him in a suffocating hold as well and planted a giant wet kiss on his cheek. He knew better than to struggle despite the fact that he was itching to run to the bathroom and scrub his cheek clean to the bone. He grimaced as she pinched it as well between her fingers.

"You have even less meat on you than the last time I've seen you, boy!" Aunt June scolded him before letting him go. She lifted DD up and glared sternly at the bot, "Have you been feeding him three full meals a day like I said?"

DD just moaned with white swirls in his plastic black eyes.

"Yes, well...I better get going. The plane will leave in two hours." Elliot grabbed his stuff and inched away from his aunt.

"Yes, of course dear." Aunt June began pushing him out the door. "If you need anything, just call."

"Right." Elliot muttered, feeling all his energy being drained for the day. He walked down the stairs, ignoring the desperate pleas from his penguin. "I'll be back in a week...or two...maybe."

_"Ellie!" _DD stretched his flippers after the retreating scientist, but the woman held him tightly in her arms. "_Ellie!" _

"Awww, isn't that precious? He's waving goodbye."

Elliot winced. Already he was feeling sorry for his robot. He unloaded his stuff into the taxi that was waiting for him and closed the car door behind him.

Aunt June waved to the retreating taxi before smiling down at DD. "That's that. Let's go inside and you can help Aunty with her hair curler." She walked back inside the apartment, not noticing the ominous skull and bones appearing on the belly of a very irritated penguin.

* * *

"Melody."

The girl groaned and wrapped her wings tighter around herself. It was too dark to wake up.

"Come on Melody, wake up." The persistent voice did not relent and Melody felt someone shaking her. "You wanted to see Frieda, didn't you?"

"Huh? What?" Melody poked her head out from her wings to see a furry blue face looking down at her. "Shade?" She groaned sleepily, "Is it morning already?"

Shade raised an eyebrow, "Actually it's evening. We sleep during the day, remember?"

"Oh right." Melody yawned and uncurled herself from her dark blue wings. She stretched them, nearly smacking her friend in the face.

"Hey! Watch it."

The brunette grinned sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I guess I still don't know the length of my own wings yet."

Shade flew off the ground, "You have all the time in the world to get used to them. Now hurry up! Frieda said that she wants to meet you."

"Ok, I'm coming." Melody opened her wings and tried to fly off the ground as well, but to no avail. "Huh?" She tried once more, but again her wings didn't get her off her feet.

"What is it this time?" Shade landed next to her again, looking a bit miffed.

Melody flapped her wings harder and hopped in place. "I can't get myself off the ground! I don't get it." She grunted as she tried again, but this time she landed on her face. She picked herself up and shook her head. "I could fly last time, so why can't I now?"

Shade frowned in thought and scratched his forehead. "Maybe…" He began slowly as a possible reason came to him, "It's because last time, you had the wind to catch you when you were falling. And you used the wing support from that." His eyes followed Melody around as she kept trying and failing over and over. "You kind of need to rely on your upper body strength more in this situation."

Well that explains it. Melody huffed and sat back down. She had little to no upper body strength ever since she was in elementary school. She recalled the time during P.E. when they had a test on pulling their chin up above the monkey bars using nothing but their arm muscles. Melody was the only one in her class who failed that test no matter how hard she tried. She sucked at pushups as well…She was great at running, but in her current form- flying was more important. Could she even run with her wings attached to her legs?

Melody looked up when she heard a snort come from Shade. "What's so funny?" She glared at the younger bat.

Shade shook his head while trying to keep himself from smiling, "It's just that...it never occurred to me that someone with larger wings than mine wouldn't be able to get themselves off the ground. I guess bigger doesn't always mean stronger."

Clicking her tongue with annoyance, Melody began flapping her wings again. "Yeah, yeah...I have weak wings. Is your low self esteem about size getting any better?" She panted as she fell onto her feet again before narrowing her eyes at Shade. "A little help would be nice."

The blonde bat grinned, "Right." He flew over to Melody and grasped the scruff of her brown mane between her shoulders with his feet. "Sorry." He exerted himself as he flapped his wings with more effort. Melody helped by flapping her own wings and they finally got her off the ground. After a few minutes, Melody finally felt that her wings had enough air below them to support her weight.

"Ok Shade, I think I can fly on my own now."

Shade let out a deep breath and let her go. Melody let a smile spread across her face as she managed to stay in the air on her own again. Shade lowered himself to her level before saying, "Ok follow me. Frieda is with the other elders, but don't worry. She's very fair and will listen to you." He led her upwards through the tree, passing other bats who were washing their own faces with their own spit.

Melody made a face and muttered, "Yuck." After a minute or so, the girl spotted a group of elders standing on a mushroom shaped ledge that stuck out from the tree. She and Shade landed on that very ledge before them.

"Good evening, Frieda." Shade greeted the taller one of the group. Melody took a good look at the elder, and heavens did the bat look elegant. Well, as elegant as an old bat could possibly get...Frieda had long white colored hair and equally light beige fur. The underside of her enormous wings were pink unlike the rest of the silverwings, showing how old she really was.

The elder smiled at the young silverwing, "Good evening, Shade." She turned to the bat next to him and nodded at her, "I take it that this is the young bat that you have brought into our colony?"

"Yes ma'am." Melody spoke up. "My name is Melody."

"Speak when you are spoken to, rogue!" Another elder with white hair spat at her, baring her fangs. She was shorter and fatter than the rest of the elders. A complete opposite to Frieda.

Frieda narrowed her eyes disapprovingly at her fellow elder. "Now Bathsheba," she reprimanded gently, "that is no way to speak to a guest."

Bathsheba sneered at Frieda but backed down, glaring distrustfully at the newcomer. Melody was not sure that she would get along with that bat anytime soon.

Frieda smiled at Melody and came closer to her. "Melody is it?"

The young bat nodded hesitantly, feeling nervous being in front of the leader of the colony. "Yes."

"I've heard that you wished to speak to me." The elder glanced at Shade who nodded before turning back to Melody. "Can I help you?"

"I-I'm not sure." Melody looked at her feet. "I'm very far away from home in the south. In Florida. I don't know if I can get there by myself." She picked at the pebble at her feet, feeling like a small child before this ancient being.

Frieda hummed in thought, "I thought you were held captive all your life with the humans down there."

"That's the thing." Melody felt her voice shaking. Here it goes…she had to tell the truth to the elder. It felt like it was the right thing to do. The rest of the colony was too far away to hear what she was going to say. "I'm not exactly a bat. I was transformed into one by accident." She peaked at the elders who looked genuinely confused. "I was a human." She whispered the last part.

"A _human?!_" Bathsheba hissed with disbelief. "A likely story." The other elders murmured to each other in agreement.

Frieda on the other wing however, did not seem too very surprised. "My... you are far from home, aren't you child?" She asked with sympathy.

"Wait...Frieda!" Bathsheba came up to the leader, not certain that she heard her correctly. "Surely you do not believe this adolescent? Such things could not be possibly true."

Frieda crossed her wings across her chest at the gray elder. "What could this child possibly gain from lying about this? There are many mysterious unexplained things out there in the world, Bathsheba."

"Well, if what she says _is _true-" Bathsheba glared maliciously at Melody who in return gulped and took a step back towards Shade. "Then we have more the reason to chase her out of here." The elder growled, "Humans are nothing but bad news."

Melody felt Shade stiffen beside her, his eyes narrowed with anger at the older bat. "Melody is nothing like the stories we've heard about humans!" He snapped back, his hands clenched into fists. "She's nice and funny-" He trailed off and fell silent when Frieda raised her hand to stop him.

Frieda lowered her hand and stated firmly with a straight face. "No one is kicking anyone out of here." That statement rang loud and clear, mainly for the angry elder. "Melody has not done anything to cause any harm to the colony. Letting her leave on her own will most likely end up becoming a death sentence." Frieda's expression softened as she looked down at Melody's silver band. "And the other nearby colonies will not take in a banded bat."

Melody lifted her arm to look at her band as well. She had just noticed that Frieda had one just like her.

"Young Melody." The colony leader brought her attention back.

"Yes?"

"In one week's time, my colony will fly south to hibernaculum to join up with the males. It will be a very long flight, but I am certain that during that flight, you maybe able to find your way home." Melody could barely believe what she was hearing. Frieda was going to help her get back home? The elder bat smiled softly at her surprised expression. "If by some chance you do not, you are welcome to hibernate with us until spring arrives. We will figure out what to do during that time."

"_Frieda!" _Bathsheba protested.

"Th-thank you." Melody could not express her gratitude enough. She looked over at Shade who beamed back at her, more than happy for her.

"You cannot be serious!" Bathsheba exclaimed. "Besides, a bat that has never flown a night in her life cannot keep up with the migration."

"Shade will help her build up her strength before then." Frieda easily brushed off the old gray bat's complaints. "Won't you, Shade?"

The young male bat puffed out his chest, proud of receiving a responsibility from the leader herself. "Of course! You can count on me."

"And we shall all keep this knowledge of Melody being a human a secret." Frieda warned everyone with a stern tone. "We do not need everyone getting riled up over nothing."

The elders muttered in agreement while Bathsheba gave a stubborn huff and turned her back on them. Frieda frowned at her but said no more. The leader addressed the young bats, "If that is all, you may go. I'm sure the two of you need to do some hunting to build up both your strengths before the migration."

Shade grinned at Melody, "Yeah! I bet you never hunted for tiger moths before. Let's go!" He leapt off the edge and glided downwards.

Melody felt her stomach quench. "Moths?" Right, bats eat bugs...The girl groaned as she opened up her wings and prepared to glide down as well. How did that quote go again? Oh right…

'Hakuna Matata'.

* * *

Melody coughed and spat out the remainder of the blackberries from her mouth. She wiped her muzzle clean with her wing. God, that tasted awful!

"I told you." Shade called down to her as he watched her upside down from a nearby branch. "Silverwings eat insects. We aren't fruit bats."

The female bat groaned and glared at the blackberry bush. She didn't think that her tastebuds would change as well. It felt weird having to reject her favorite fruit. "I'm starting to see that." She sighed in resignation as she started to climb up the tree with her clawed wings until she was next to him on the branch. It wasn't like she was able to fly off the ground on her own yet. Her feet clenched at the bark easily and she was secure in place. Melody looked at her feet, making sure that she had a good hold before relaxing next to Shade. Good thing she was starting to get used to hanging upside down. In a way, it was kind of fun. She didn't get lightheaded from the blood rushing to her head like she would have as a human. "So...how does a bat hunt?"

Oh boy, if Shade didn't look elated before, he did now. He actually had another bat looking up to him for guidance. That was something that had never happened to him before as he was the one always needing help from the other bats. Him being the runt of the colony and all. "First," he instructed, "you will have to master your echolocation."

"Oh?"

"Yeah." Shade nodded, "Since we can only fly around at night, locating something to eat can actually be pretty difficult with our eyes alone. Insects can easily blend into their surroundings." He explained before turning to focus into the dark distance, "Watch." He closed his eyes and let out a high pitched screech. He allowed his echolocation travel into the distance before having it bounce back at him. He opened his eyes and smiled at Melody. "Right ahead is a deer grazing. You wouldn't be able to tell that with your eyes alone. Give it a try!"

True, Melody couldn't see anything ahead so she took a deep breath and like Shade, screeched in the same direction. She waited for the soundwaves to come back and just like magic, she saw a bright image of a deer appear before her. She was seeing with _sound! _"This…" She gasped out with astonishment, her eyes wide, "this is amazing!"

"See?" Shade laughed and nudged her with his shoulder. "Being a bat can actually be pretty cool."

Melody wrinkled her nose, "I'm still not too fond of the idea of eating bugs." She smiled a little when Shade laughed at her confession.

He spread open his wings and detached himself from the branch. "You might be surprised." He replied teasingly until his attention got caught on something. He gave a predatory smirk and let his fangs show, "Wait here and watch me hunt." He instantly took off, the flapping of his wings silent as the night.

Melody blinked but stayed put. She watched him soar through the trees with little effort before he dove straight into a bush. The brunette stretched her neck out a bit more to get a better look. It seemed that he had caught something. Indeed it appeared to be true as he returned with something between his teeth. He hung next to her and removed the insect from his mouth before he held it out for her.

The girl recoiled back from it as disgust washed over her. "A weevil?" She asked weakly.

He smirked in return. "And I caught it just for you." Oh yeah, he was enjoying this… "Come on Melody, just a little nibble?"

Melody shivered and hugged her wings around herself. "I don't think I'm so hungry anymore."

Shade rolled his eyes at her childishness. "How do you know you don't like it if you haven't tried it?" He reasoned and stretched the bug out to her again.

"It's a bug!" Melody protested.

"And you are a bat." Shade countered, not letting up. "Go on Melody. Weevils are good for you. It's not like you can eat fruit, you know that." He frowned at the lack of reaction he got from her. "You need to eat in order to migrate, and I promised Frieda that I will make you strong enough to make the trip. Do it for me?"

Melody glanced over at Shade and flinched at the baby bat eyes that he was making. God damn it. She sighed and unfurled her wings before slowly taking the insect from Shade. She stared down at the thing. Oh heavens, it was still twitching. Melody gulped down the bile that was building up in the back of her throat. "Fine." She squeezed her eyes shut and shoved the weevil in her mouth. She felt the shell crack between her fangs, and desperately tried to swallow it before she could taste it. Of course the bug was too big to swallow whole, so she was forced to chew it. Gulping it down finally, she let out a breath.

Shade had watched her carefully and once she was done he asked, "Well?"

Melody pouted and averted her eyes, "It was...not bad." She muttered. Kinda tasted like a crunchy chicken.

The blonde bat grinned poked her with his finger, "See? You liked it." He laughed at her glare and poked her again, causing her to sway back and forth as she hung from the branch.

"Stop it." She grumbled.

He chuckled before something orange flew past their faces. Shade's eyes went wide as did his jaw. "That's a tiger moth!" He exclaimed.

"A tiger moth?" Melody questioned, not sure what he was getting all riled up about.

"They are really hard to catch." Shade hastily explained, "And very delicious-" he flapped his wings, obviously not wanting to waste any time to try and catch it. "I'll let you have a taste, just wait here." He zoomed after the moth, faster than he had done with the weevil.

"It's ok, you can have it all." Melody's words fell on deaf ears as she watched with amusement as he chased after the moth like it was his life.

* * *

**A/N**:Woohoo! Longer chapter. And it's the start of episode one with the appearance of the tiger moth. Yeah, I did not think that I would get to episode one THIS late in the story. But hey, better late than never, eh? I hope you all enjoyed and stay tuned for chapter four.


	4. Let's Go Break the Law!

******Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 4**: Let's Go Break the Law!

* * *

Melody followed Shade with her eyes, noting the way that he hunts. He certainly relied on his echolocation a lot and she did not blame him. Keeping track of that tiger moth was no easy task. That thing just would not stay still. He almost got it once, but he let it slip past him as he grazed through the bushes. That did not stop him from licking his mouth hungrily and trying again.

"Hey, you are the newbie, right?"

Melody jerked her head upward to see three young bats her age land around her. Two of them were male, and one of them was a female. It was the taller male that had spoken. He had the same dark shade of blue fur as she did, except he had light blue hair and no white underbelly. It seemed like she was the only one who had that. He hung facedown on her right. "Guilty as charged, I guess." Melody shrugged.

"The name is Chinook." The adolescent male pointed to himself before pointing to his friends, "And this is Breeze and Todd." Breeze was the one with the violet fur and had blonde hair like Shade, she smiled at Melody as she stood below her on a lower branch. Todd was teal colored and had dark orange hair and was rather chubby. He waved at her as he took his place on her left.

"Melody." She replied, feeling a bit unsure how to react to these bats. They seemed friendly enough, just curious about her.

"So, what are you doing up here all alone?" Breeze asked not unkindly.

The brunette shook her head at the female bat. "No, I'm not alone. Shade's showing me how to hunt."

The others turned their attention to the smaller bat down below, still trying to catch the tiger moth. Chinook snorted out a laugh, earning a raised brow from Melody. "So, the runt's actually trying to catch a tiger moth on his own? Look's like he finally found someone to try and show off to."

Melody frowned, not liking his high and mighty tone. She especially did not appreciate the degrading name he used on Shade. She knew how sensitive Shade was about his size. "Don't call him that! It's not his fault he was born like that. Besides, he's only trying to help me learn how to hunt."

Chinook rolled his eyes, "Please." He spread open his wings out wide, forcing Melody to lean out of the way due to their wide wingspan. "He'd be lucky to grow up half the size of my dad." He gloated proudly. "But considering your handicap, I don't blame him for trying to impress _you_. With his scrawny wings, he hasn't got much of a selection to choose from."

Melody bristled at his words. He wasn't just insulting Shade, he was indirectly insulting _her _as well. She doubted that was his intention, but still! "Well, excuse me for being such a poor excuse of a bat!" She snapped. She was very tempted to leave. Wait...why did she care how good of a bat she was? She wasn't really a bat in the first place anyway!

"Woah! Hold on…" Chinook immediately tried to backtrack. "I didn't mean-" He stumbled over his words, "It's not your fault those humans kept you from ever learning how to fly." He gave her a reassuring toothy smile. "I bet that if you keep practicing, you will be one of the best flyers around!"

Melody huffed and looked away. He was so trying to butter her up.

"Look, I just don't think the squirt is the best candidate to show you how hunting is done." The dark blue bat explained and he looked down at Shade who was currently confused by the tiger moth's echo projection. He blindly bit at the empty air where the multiple clone illusions of the moth's hovered. "Much less a tiger moth."

"Oh, and I suppose _you_ can do it better?" Melody challenged him, unimpressed.

Chinook grinned at her and he opened up his large dark wings as he accepted her challenge. "Watch and learn." He swooped down after Shade and the tiger moth.

"Now who's showing off?" Melody muttered. She felt someone nudge her with their wing and she turned to Breeze who smirked teasingly at her. "What?"

"I think Chinook sorta likes you."

Melody looked like she had a lemon lodged in her throat before turning away, disgusted. "God forbid."

The other female bat seemed confused by her statement, but they were interrupted by Todd who chuckled as he watched the scene below them. "Oh boy, Chinook is going to swipe that tiger moth right from under Shade's nose."

Melody turned her attention down back to Shade. He looked so determined that he would catch the insect that the girl could not help but root for him. "Not unless Shade gets it first." She replied back. '_Come on Shade!'_ She cheered silently, '_Show that conceited butthead what you are capable of!' _

In that moment, Shade had finally gained enough speed to catch up to the moth. Melody clenched her fists in anticipation as he opened his mouth to bite into the tiger moth when Chinook swooped in at the last minute and snatched the insect instead. Melody groaned while the two adolescent bats next to her burst into cheers. Shade spun in the air, looking completely at loss of what just happened. When he noticed Chinook flying back to where Melody was, he quickly followed after him.

"Woohoo! Way to go Chinook!" Todd exclaimed as the larger bat took his place in the tree with them again.

"Who's the bat? You the bat!" Breeze added, making Melody roll her eyes. Was the bad grammar necessary? "Cool technique!"

Their praises were doing nothing but elating Chinook's already swollen ego as he swallowed the tiger moth with a smug grin. "I know."

"That tiger moth never saw what hit him!" His female friend swung her fist in the air as an emphasis.

"Ha! Neither did Shade." Chinook and the rest of his friends began laughing. Melody just scowled. Darn, if she just kept her mouth shut, Shade would have gotten that moth!

Shade was out of breath by the time he reached the others. His expression held frustration and a hint of hurt. "I could have had him!" He growled at the larger bat.

"Coulda-woulda-shoulda." Chinook taunted as he prodded Shade roughly with his clawed finger, causing him to lose his balance next to him and fall onto the lower branch.

"No!" Melody blurt out angrily and landed down next to her friend before confronting Chinook. "That was foul play! That moth was Shade's fair and square, but you took that away from him!"

"Huh." The dark blue bat was not phased by her words. "It looks like you don't know how things work around here, Melody." He stretched lazily for a moment before continuing, "It's the survival of the fittest in this world. There is no foul play. There is no such thing as cheating. You either are good enough, or not. You either win or die." He smirked at Shade who in turn glared back at him, "Let _that _be your lesson from me."

The brunette glowered at Chinook but said nothing. As much as she hated to admit it, the arrogant bastard was right. She was living in the wild now. Complaining about fairness would be considered to be foolish.

"Don't sweat it runt." Chinook went back to goading Shade on, "Only the best hunters can see through the moth's echo protection."

Shade scoffed in reply. "Echo protection? The word is _echo projection, _and _don't _call me runt!"

"_Really?" _The larger bat sneered in his face before he turned his back on Shade, blocking him out while giving his full attention to a disgruntled Melody and his other two friends. "Now, where was I before I was forced to eat yet another tiger moth?" He either hinted that he snatched one from Shade once before, or he was just rubbing the fact that he had caught more tiger moths before in Shade's face. Either way, it was starting to drive Melody nuts. How much more arrogant could the guy get?

Shade seemed to share her sentiments exactly as he rolled his eyes with a sigh the moment Chinook got started. He clearly had to go through this sort of thing to death.

"You were telling us about your dad." Breeze gushed, turning more into one of those Justin Bieber fangirls that Melody was scared to death of. No seriously- those women are terrifying.

"Oh, he's big."

Melody grimaced. Seriously, wasn't there another discussion topic that did not have to have the subject of size in it? She wondered if there would be a chance to sneak away with Shade while the three were so absorbed in their cock fest.

"Big enough to kill an owl!" Chinook swung around his branch until he was standing straight on top of it, spreading his wings to make himself seem larger.

"Wow…" Breeze swooned.

Melody snorted, "Now that's an exaggeration if I have ever heard one."

"That's...even bigger than what you said last time." Todd shockingly agreed with her.

"Kill an owl?" Shade added with a laugh as he crossed his wings across his chest. "I don't think so."

For some odd reason, Chinook dismissed Melody's and Todd's thoughts without batting an eyelash. Instead he turned on Shade with a challenging glare. "You calling me a liar, runt?!" He snarled and roughly shoved the younger bat to his knees. It made Melody wonder if there was a more personal rivalry between the two that she was not aware of.

"Not...technically?" the blonde bat tried to choose his words more carefully as he gingerly got back up. If a fight broke out between them, he would be the one who would take the brunt of it. Whether he liked it or not, Chinook was a lot more stronger than him.

Luckily for him, Chinook accepted his answer as a sign of backing down. He spread his wings for the millionth time again, shoving the smaller bat off his feet again on purpose. "My father's _huge!" _

Ok, Melody had enough of this bullshit. Watching this bully push Shade around was becoming too painful to bear. "Alright, stop it!" She yelled, catching everyone off guard. "First off," she began, advancing on Chinook and jabbing him in the chest with her finger. "How do you know all of this? From what I know, pups like you don't get to see their fathers until they reach hibernaculum. How would you know what he looks like?" Oh yeah. She couldn't be happier to have studied this. Hurray for knowledge!

This indeed put Chinook in an awkward position. His eyes darted everywhere, carefully avoiding her penetrating ones as he struggled to come up with an answer. "Um- my mom told me, of course!"

"Of course." Melody smiled sweetly, "Then I suppose you won't mind if we all go and ask her ourselves, would you?" She caught Shade staring at her with his mouth open. She had to bite her tongue in order to keep herself from laughing.

"Ok, so I exaggerated a bit!" Chinook's voice cracked, finally confessing. "Maybe he's not so big that he's able to kill an owl by himself, but he's still big!" He insisted, glaring angrily at the smaller female, his pride slightly wounded. "You'll see him once we get to hibernaculum." He grabbed her by the arm, pulling her wing open, "_If _your wings can make the migration."

Melody pulled away from him, glaring daggers.

"But then again, why even bother when neither of you have a dad waiting for you there anyway?"

That set Shade over the edge. "Don't you dare bring my father into this!" He roared angrily before Melody could say anything.

"Your dad was bad news!" Chinook retorted back just as loudly as he grabbed Shade by the scruff of his yellow mane. "He was a troublemaker _and _a coward!"

Crap, Melody meant to shut Chinook up, not to get him all riled up even more!

"My dad was not a coward! You fruit bat..."

Thankfully, Breeze changed the subject before things got any more ugly. "Sun's coming up!" She alerted nervously as she noticed the sky getting lighter, wanting this fight to end just as much as Melody did. "Gotta get back to Tree Haven."

Todd agreed, looking just as uncomfortable as Breeze was. "Come on Chinook. Let's go."

Chinook spared his friends a glance before turning back to Shade one last time. "You better watch your mouth." He warned the smaller bat who glared right back. The larger blue bat made his way to his friends and frowned at Melody as he passed her on the way. "I don't know what you see in that shrimp. Come and find us when you decide that you want to hang out with the better crowd." He took off, leaving both Shade and Melody behind. "Let's fly!"

His friends followed after him, nearly blowing the two off their branch by accident.

"Hmph!" Melody folded her wings as she hung next to her friend. "Not, going to happen." She muttered under her breath. Who did that Chinook think he was? "Don't pay too much mind to him, Shade." She said when she noticed that Shade was still upset. "They say that dumb dogs bark louder than the rest." Ok, so that wasn't exactly the correct quote, but it was the message that she was trying to convey that mattered the most, right?

"Come on, guys!" Breeze called to them.

"You guys go!" Shade yelled back, making himself more comfortable on the branch. "I'm going to hang around here and see the sun."

"Huh?" Melody did a double take. "Wait- but didn't you tell me once that it's too dangerous to be out here in broad daylight?"

Shade didn't answer, his jaw was set firmly in stubborn determination as he stared at the horizon.

It turned out that Chinook and the gang had the same reaction as they all skidded to a stop in mid air and bumped into one another. They changed their direction and flew back to Shade and Melody. "See the sun?" the older teenage bat asked as he landed back on their branch.

"You heard me." Shade replied with a smug grin.

"I heard you, but I don't believe you." Chinook scowled.

Melody could hardly believe what was happening either. "Shade...please don't tell me you are letting your wounded pride get the best of you."

"No one is asking you to stay out here with me, Melody."

"You can't be outside when the sun comes up! The owls will kill you!" Breeze pitched in with terror in her eyes.

The girl shook her head, starting to feel a bit confused. "Wait...hold on. What is with this whole 'the owls will kill you' deal?" She looked around at everyone. "Don't owls hunt at night? What's so bad about being out when the sun's up?" That earned her strange looks from everyone. "What?"

"Just _where_ have you been living all your life?" Chinook pointed at her.

"With humans, I thought we went over this."

"Have you seen it?" Todd asked her with wide eyes.

"Seen what?"

"The _sun._" He whispered, as if by just uttering the word would have the owls on him.

Melody shrugged, still not seeing what the big deal was. "Yeah. Everyday. It's big, round, yellow, and blinds anyone who stares directly into it for too long. It's kind of hard to miss."

Breeze gasped with horror while Chinook and Todd were both struck speechless. Shade on the other hand seemed quite intrigued. "You better not let anyone else hear you say that!" Breeze hissed while looking around, making sure that they were alone. "Seeing the sun is against the law!"

The brunette blinked in bafflement. "There's a _law _against it?" There was an awkward pause for a few seconds before the girl blurted out, "What idiot made _that _up?"

"_Shhh!_" Chinook covered her mouth with his wing.

"No, I agree." Shade included himself into the conversation again. "It's a stupid law." He grinned challengingly at Chinook. "Why don't we break the rules for once?"

"_What_?" The darker bat's voice rose an octave and cracked at the 'we.'

"Come on Chinook." Shade pressed on, relishing in the fact that he was making the older bat squirm. "Aren't you curious?"

"..." Chinook stood there for a while thinking to himself. If he backed down, he would be letting Shade win this game. Finally, he let Melody go (who gasped for air) and approached his rival. "Maybe I am, runt."

"Are you all out of your minds?!" Todd exclaimed. The sound of the morning birds began to get louder and the chubbier bat shook his head and hopped towards the edge of the branch, eager to leave. "No, it's morning and we should really be inside." He quickly fled the scene.

"I'm with you Todd." Breeze immediately followed after him, leaving their leader with Shade and Melody.

The three watched them until they were out of sight. Chinook took in a deep breath and with a forced carefree tone he asked, "So, what are we gonna do? Hang out?"

Shade opened up his wings, "I thought that maybe we could fly up top. Get a better view." He looked over his shoulder at Melody, "You don't have to stay with us Melody. Go home." He took off without another word. Chinook hesitated a moment before following him.

Melody watched them fly up to the the highest branch on the dead tree nearby. Her mouth set in a dark frown. There was no way that she was letting Shade do this on his own. He was _her _friend. If he insisted on getting into trouble, then she was not going to just fly away and leave him. She leapt off the branch with her wings open wide. She let the air push up against her wings like a parachute before flying up after Shade and Chinook.

The light blue bat was surprised to see her roost next to him. "Melody, what are you doing?"

The girl grinned at him, "_I _-" she began, "am seeing my first sunrise."

"But didn't you see the sun loads of times before?"

"Of course." Melody chirped, wrapping her wings securely around herself. "I've seen the sun rise high into the sky. I have even seen the sunset. But I have never ever seen the sun rise above the horizon before."

Shade raised an eyebrow. "Never?"

Melody shrugged and grinned, "I was too busy sleeping."

Shade cracked a smile back at her. He didn't say it, but he was glad that she decided to stay. They all turned back to face the east, the horizon glowing a beautiful yellow.

"Well, I guess that's the sun." Chinook sighed and looked over to his companions with a hopeful smile, "let's head back."

Melody felt her lips stretch further into a smile at Chinook's obvious uneasiness. "That's not the sun. That's just the preglow."

"Oh. Well...sure hope there's no owls around. Right?" The dark blue bat asked, getting fidgety.

"Why do you care?" Shade smirked, "according to you, bats can kill owls."

Chinook laughed nervously, "Hey, you know what I was just thinking? We could..._not _see the sun and say we saw it? How about that?" He tapped his claws together with a false smile.

"Oh, _really?_" Shade asked with a knowing look.

Chinook nodded eagerly. When neither Shade nor Melody made a move to leave, he began to tremble with fear. Before long, he could no longer handle it anymore and zoomed off as fast as his wings could carry him.

"Ha!" Melody smirked at Shade as they looked at each other. "Now who's the coward?"

He returned the smile before settling to continue watching the sun rise.

"Are you sure?" Melody asked after a few minutes, feeling a bit sleepy.

"Hmm?"

"You've won. You don't have to stay out here any longer." Melody gently told him, struggling to keep her eyes open. "If we go back now, we'll still make it on time."

"No." Shade sighed. "If I don't do this to the end, then all of this would be for nothing." He watched the horizon without blinking, almost as if he was in a trance.

The female bat scooted closer to him until their wings touched. "Ok." She gave a hearty yawn and closed her eyes. "Tell me when the sun's up." She muttered.

Shade continued to watch the sunrise. After about ten minutes, the sun finally began to poke it's head out. He hissed and covered his eyes with his wing, never having experienced something so bright before. After adjusting to the light, he lowered his wing and gasped. He was filled with awe at the wonder that was happening right before his eyes. "Melody…" He gently shook her, unable to look away from the sun. She did not stir, already fast asleep. A smile broke out on his face, "it's so beautiful...and warm."

The magical moment ended abruptly when the screech of an owl pierced his ears. His eyes went wide in fear as he saw the giant bird aim itself right at them! "_MELODY!"_ Shade screamed in horror as he detached himself from the branch and shoved her off right before the owl's talons pierced through the wood.

"Huh?!" Melody woke up only to see that the ground was approaching extremely fast. It was not the best wake up call. She screamed, too startled to get her wings open. She felt something gasp her by the scruff of her mane and it pulled her away from the forest floor. She glanced up to see Shade struggling to hold her weight, flapping his wings furiously.

He grunted, "Melody!" His eyes shut tightly with concentration. "Owl. Fly!"

"What?" Melody suddenly felt a shadow fall over them, and panic began to set in. Owl?! She shrieked and flapped her wings as hard as she could. They separated and the owl burst past, narrowly missing them.

"This way!" Shade yelled to her and she swooped down after him into the tunnel of a hollow log. The talons of the owl crashed through the log, it was pure luck that either of the young bats managed to fly out the other end without getting crushed. The two panted as they dodged through the trees. Melody felt her heart racing like it never had before to the point that she was sure it would pop out.

Suddenly an idea came to her. She had no time to ponder on whether it would work or not. Grabbing a branch with her feet, she gritted her teeth as she bent it as far as it could go before letting it go. The branch swung back with a sharp snap and rammed right into the owl, causing the bird to spiral backwards. She let out a breathy laugh as she caught up to Shade again, her arms protesting from overuse. "I… got him!"

Shade looked behind them and grinned when he saw nothing but a bunch of feathers floating about. He did not expect for the owl to suddenly appear in front of him though. He cried out in surprise and smacked right into it's chest.

"Shade!" Melody shrieked fearfully, managing to stop on time. The owl grabbed the small bat by the wing with it's beak and tried to pry him out of his feathers. Shade held on tightly, too scared to let go. The feathers that he grasped plucked out of the bird however, and he was sent flying backwards.

The owl shrieked angrily and aimed for him again. Shade cried out and let go of the feathers that were in his hands. He led the owl around a tree before catching up to Melody who was already making her way across the lake towards Tree Haven. She looked over her shoulder at him. "You ok?!"

"Yeah!" Shade flapped next to her. "Don't look back! No matter what happens, keep flying!"

Melody swallowed hard and focused on trying to get to safety, her throat burning. They were almost there! She heard the owl diving down at them. She gasped and moved out of the way, but Shade was not so lucky. The bird's feet slammed against his back and forced him underwater. The brunette for a second believed that he was a goner, but to her delight, Shade burst out of the water spluttering and coughing. In the talon's of the owl was instead a large rock.

"Get inside!" He rasped out after Melody.

She dove straight for the hole in the tree, her wings pressed firmly against her sides and made it through. Of course, with the speed she was going, there was no way to stop on time and she hit the ground, rolling a few times. She felt hands pull her up, and glanced to see Shade. The talons of the owl tried to reach them inside the tree, raking across the wood. It would have gotten them if Shade hadn't pushed both Melody and himself out of harm's way, pinning her back against the wall, his smaller wings spread out in attempt to shield her.

The owl soon gave up. It gave one last angry cry before it flew away. Shade's wings trembled as he lowered them, and Melody leaned against the wall with her hand over her heart, coughing from overexerting herself. They both gave a sigh of relief before looking at each other with tired smiles on their faces.

"_Shade Silverwing!_"

The young bats flinched at the pissed off female voice.

"Oh mama…" Melody muttered as she raised her wing to cover her face. They were in deep shit right now.

* * *

**A/N**: Yeah. Another chapter. Why? Because I had nothing better to do with my life. R.I.P. Robin Williams, you will be missed.


	5. Punishment

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 5**: Punishment

Elliot stood outside the airport waiting for a taxi. He pulled his coat a little tighter around himself as the chilly Canadian autumn wind blew. He wasn't entirely sure what he would be able to accomplish while he was here. How he would find Melody, one single silver haired bat among millions was beyond him. That and how he would be able to turn her human again. He had brought everything along with him that he thought would help in contribute on making an antidote. Also, don't bats usually migrate south around this time? Elliot felt a migraine coming on by just realizing that. "What am I going to do?" he muttered, closing his eyes while feeling all his hope withering away.

_Bzzz! Bzzz!_

Elliot wordlessly pulled out his cell phone and placed it next to his ear. "Yes?"

He flinched and had to pull the phone away from his ear an arm's length away when the distraught voice of his aunt began to shriek. "Elliot! Thank goodness! You're finally out of the plane! The most horrible thing has happened!"

Cautiously, he placed the phone closer to his ear as he tried to answer. "Aunt June? What is it?"

"DD IS MISSING!"

Elliot's face drained of all it's color. "For how long?" He managed to croak out, a foreboding feeling was starting to seep in.

"About half an hour after you left! I thought he was just hiding in the house somewhere because he needed time to himself, poor thing...he took your leaving so harshly. I should have noticed it when he nearly burned my hair off with the curling iron. When it came time for supper, I couldn't find him anywhere!"

With every word, Elliot's eyes very slowly turned to his suitcase. Suddenly the case seemed far too innocent to be true. He felt like he was living in the midst of a horror movie. With his heart hammering in his throat, he shakily reached for the zipper. He swore he could even hear the suspense music playing... Taking in a deep breath, the scientist zipped the suitcase open and lifted the lid.

The object of his nightmares stared right back at him. The robot waved his flippers happily. "_Ellie!" _

* * *

_"_Shade Cassiel Silverwing!" Ariel flew down to the two young bats and tightly embraced her son. "Thank Nocturna you are safe." The hug did not last long and she glared down at Shade and his best friend. "What were the both of you doing out there?!" She screeched, causing Melody to lower her eyes. She was just too ashamed of looking at Shade's mother in the eye. It was partially her fault that she did not stop him from hanging out there until morning. As his friend, she realized that she had betrayed his mother's trust of being a good influence.

"Um...you see. We were...we-" she stammered. '_Come on Melody. Think of something! Say that you lost track of time...or that both of you fell asleep from hanging upside down too long, or-'_

"Nothing." Shade replied.

_'And the World's-Most-Stupidest-Excuse award goes to...' _

_"_Nothing?!" Ariel cried out in outrage. "That owl nearly killed you!"

"W-we got away." The small bat tried to soften her anger. She wasn't having any of it.

"Do the either of you realize what you have done?!"

Melody slightly moved behind Shade, wanting to disappear. This was quickly becoming more serious than she had hoped for it to be.

"You broke the law." Ariel answered for them with an agonized sigh while shaking her head.

Melody and Shade glanced at each other with guilt and the air was filled with horrified whispers from the rest of the colony. Melody looked up to see fearful and angry faces from each and one of them as they glared right back down at them. She spotted Chinook not too far away and they locked eyes. He seemed just as scared and guilt ridden as they were. He couldn't even handle looking at her for too long before his will crumbled and he wrapped himself up in his wings and turned his back on her.

She heard wings flapping and turned to see Breeze and Todd coming towards them and landed on a perch right above them. "You two are in so much guano! Chinook's been grounded for a week!" Todd smirked, amused by the trouble the two young bats were in.

Melody wrinkled her nose with distaste, "you don't say?" She was not in the mood for those two right now.

"Why?" Shade asked, rather surprised at the news. "He didn't do anything...that big mouse." He glared at Chinook's back from the corner of his eye.

"So Shade, did you see it?" Breeze inquired next to Todd, actually sounding very impressed with him. "The...you know."

"Todd!" A sharp voice called and they turned to see a very cross female bat with two other females that Melody could only guess to be his mother. They both looked alike. "Roost!" She commanded with a point.

The chubby young bat obediently did as he was told without question and left with Breeze behind him.

"Ariel!" Todd's mother snapped once her son was out of earshot. "This has gone too far!"

"Far too far!" Another mother bat, presumably Breeze's agreed.

The third female bat flew down to their level and pointed at the two young bats. "Keep those troublemakers away from my baby!" She especially glared at Melody with distrust.

"Huh, that's a laugh." Shade muttered while rolling his eyes, hinting that this 'baby' was Chinook.

"Shade!" Ariel hushed him angrily. "Roost. Now!"

Her son lowered his eyes, completely subdued before doing as his mother willed him. Her stern eyes turned to Melody next. The girl cowered under her disappointed glare, nearly shrinking in size.

"You too Melody."

"Huh?" Melody blinked. She wasn't sure that she heard Ariel correctly. Was she seriously allowing someone like her to still join them? After what had happened? Ariel folded her wings and waited expectantly for the young female. Melody bit her lip and decided not to question her. She flapped her wings as hard as she could but failed miserably to get herself off the ground once again. Tears of humiliation threatened to trickle out as she heard mocking laughs from a couple of bats. Melody whimpered and sank to the floor, covering her head with her wings, trying to hide from judging eyes. There was one thing that she couldn't handle, and that was everyone staring at her. Judging her. Sneering at her.

She heard a sigh come from Ariel before she felt something grip her gently, but firmly by the shoulders. Melody squeaked softly in surprise as Ariel almost effortlessly lifted her off the floor and flew upwards towards where Shade's roost was. Shade moved over to make room for Melody as his mother helped her get a grip onto the edge with her feet. Once she was secure, the brunette let out a shaky breath before blanketing herself with her wings, sniffling softly.

Shade felt absolutely awful for he could see how much this was affecting Melody. He really did not mean for her to get involved, which was why he told her to go back in the first place. But she refused, not wanting to leave Shade in trouble by himself. Silently, Shade scooted closer to his friend until he pressed against her. She opened her hazel eyes and tearfully looked back at his apologetic expression. "I'm sorry." He whispered to her.

Melody closed her eyes and leaned her head against his. "Me too." Taking comfort from her new good friend, the girl slipped away into her dreams.

Shade on the other wing, could not fall asleep so easily. The cruel words of Chinook kept replaying over and over in his head. He looked over to his mother who was sleeping beside him. "Mom?" He whispered to her before cautiously making sure that he didn't wake Melody. Seeing that she was deep asleep, he tried again. "Mom...mom? Hey, are you awake?"

Ariel hummed in response.

"Was dad a troublemaker?"

His mother was silent for moment before she turned her head towards her son. "Go to sleep."

"...Was he a coward?" Shade asked, unable to keep his worries to himself.

"He was brave and impulsive...and defiant." Ariel finally replied. "Sometimes a little foolish, like you." She added with a small smile. "But he was _no _coward."

Shade allowed those words to sink in before asking his final question. "Did the owls get him?"

"No one knows for sure." Ariel said softly and closed her eyes. "Now try to get some sleep."

The light blue bat sighed sadly and gently leaned against Melody again. He didn't know what was going to happen now, but... there was no way that he and Melody were going to face it alone. Soon, Shade Silverwing fell asleep.

* * *

"Hey! Psst! Wake up you three." A deep voice whispered.

Melody groaned as she woke up and groggily looked at the bat who disturbed her sleep. To her astonishment, it was an adult male bat. Wasn't this colony only filled with females and pups? Well, it turned out that at least one male bat stayed behind with them.

"Huh?" Shade moved beside her as he and his mother woke up as well.

"What is it?" Ariel whispered back to the male.

"The council of elders have met. They want to see all three of you now."

Shade's eyebrows rose up, "But only adults go up _there." _

"Shh!" The bat whose name was to be revealed as Mercury hushed him. "Yes, _and_ anyone who looks at the sun. So spit wash your face and follow me."

Ew...

Melody unfolded her wings and followed after Mercury along with Shade and his mother up higher into the tree. It was higher up than she had gone before inside Tree Haven. They landed on a large wooden ledge with Ariel behind her son and Melody, her hands placed protectively over both their shoulders. None of them knew what to expect, and they were all nervous about finding out. Melody looked up to see the elders gliding down onto a ledge above them.

"Shade Silverwing and Melody, step forward." Frieda commanded.

Ariel hesitantly let go of the younger bats and the two did as Frieda told them.

Frieda continued, "You have both broken the most ancient law of our colony. Do you have an explanation?"

"Just youthful exuberance and curiosity!" Ariel stepped in quickly, trying to defend Shade and his friend. "They only-"

"Curiosity?" Bathsheba hissed menacingly at the word. "Curiosity that will be the ruin of this colony. The owls _will _want retribution _and _quite frankly, who can blame them?"

Melody felt herself go pale.

"Silence!" Frieda snapped at Bathsheba, not liking her attitude. She turned back to the young ones. "Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"

"No!" Ariel once again tried to speak for Shade and Melody. "No, they don't! Shade is just a boy, and Melody was confined to live with humans all her life!"

"Yes!" Shade interrupted his mother and stepping away from her, causing both Melody and Ariel to fearfully look at him. "I do. The law is wrong!"

The adult witnesses gasped, shocked and disgusted.

Bathsheba of course was furious, "_What?!" _She snarled.

"Shade!" Ariel gasped.

Frieda however did not take offense and declared, "Let the boy speak!"

The ill-tempered elder ignored her leader. "Listen you ignorant upstart!" She hopped over to the edge of the wood, and glared at the young silverwing. "The law guarantees our existence."

"Bathsheba." Frieda said warningly before gesturing for Shade to continue, "go on."

"Well…" Shade hesitated for a second, "what's wrong with bats seeing the sun? I didn't turn into stone. Melody has seen the sun hundreds of times and nothing bad ever happened to her."

"Um...yeah." The brunette weakly supported his words. "I agree. I always thought that bats only came out at night simply because they prefered the dark."

Shade added, "The only reason we can't be out in daylight is because of the owls. It's unfair!"

Frieda held up her wing. "I have heard enough."

"Indeed." Bathsheba agreed. "We have no choice but to hand over the lawbreakers to the owls."

Melody gasped in horror.

Ariel was devastated. "What?!" She wrapped her wings around her son, and held Melody's arm tightly in one hand. "No! Please! Frieda!" She begged.

"And we should do it now!" Bathsheba ignored Ariel, trying to get Frieda to heed her decision. "Before the owls come for them."

"_I _will take the appropriate action." Frieda calmly told the shorter elder. Her eyes lowered down to Melody and she frowned sadly. "I am afraid Melody...that I have no choice but to banish you from my colony."

The girl's heart sank like a rock and her throat froze up, unable to utter a sound. To her amazement, Shade seemed even more upset than she was.

"NO!" He exclaimed, breaking away from his mother and stood in front of Melody, holding his wings out. "Frieda! Please you can't banish her!" He pleaded, his voice cracking a bit. "Melody didn't know any better! I never warned her that seeing the sun was against the law! It is not her fault!"

Frieda sighed and shook her head. "It is very noble of you to try and defend your friend, Shade Silverwing, however...circumstances are far more complicated than they would be if Melody was a part of this colony." She explained to the distraught boy. "If the owls come for Melody, then I will have no power to protect her." Her eyes softened as she saw the young male bat trembling with tears building up in his eyes. "I know that I have once said that sending Melody away would mean the same thing as a death sentence. But please try to understand Shade. I am giving her a chance to save herself."

"No…" Shade choked out. He couldn't believe it. He finally had found the one true friend that never once mocked him for his size. She stood up for him when it really mattered, and relied on him when no one else would. Aside from his mother, she was the only one who believed in him. He turned to look over at Melody, whose hopes looked completely crushed. He was probably never going to see her again.

"I shall give you a moment." Frieda said softly.

Melody breathed in deeply, trying to keep her own tears in check before finally meeting Shade's eyes. She didn't know what to say to him.

The smaller bat hugged her tightly, burying his face in her brown hair. "Melody...don't go." His voice shook.

Melody managed to crack a smile for Shade and hugged him back. "I'll be ok Shade. I'm scared but...I do still have to find my family. And who knows?" She sniffed before backing out of the hug, making him look up at her. "Maybe we'll bump into each other when you migrate south? I have to go down there anyway." She laughed a bit at herself through her tears. It wasn't like she knew where south was. She never learned to find the northern star before...and now she was regretting it. Plus there was the issue with her wings being so flimsy that she wasn't able to get herself off the floor if she was grounded. Flying across an entire country was starting to seem impossible.

Shade seemed to be having the same thoughts as he clutched her hands in his, looking worriedly at her wings. Melody quickly chirped up, "Don't worry. You taught me the most important things about being a bat. Such as echolocation- I'll finally be able to hunt for myself." The girl hugged him once more. "Thank you Shade. I would have been lost without you."

That did it for Shade. He clung to her as much as he could as tears leaked down his cheeks, his chest heaving from his sobs. He couldn't remember the last time he cried so much. There were times when Chinook's bullying became too much for him to handle, but...losing a friend was much worse.

They held each other for a few minutes before Melody had to pry herself away from Shade. She gave him one last smile before turning to Ariel. "I'm sorry for not protecting your son as much as I should have."

Ariel shook her head and hugged the girl. "You have done more for Shade than I could ever have. Thank you for being his friend." She pulled away and gently fixed Melody's hair, moving the strands from her eyes. "Be safe, dear. Stay off the ground and strengthen those wings of yours."

"I will." Melody promised before turning to Frieda. "Thank you Frieda. I will not forget your kindness towards me."

Frieda nodded once.

The young female took one deep breath before opening her wings and glided off the ledge. She ignored the glares that she received from the bats around her as she neared the exit.

"Melody?" She heard Chinook's voice and stopped.

The dark blue adolescent looked confused and rather concerned as he hung from his roost. "Where are you going?"

Melody smiled bitterly. "Home. Don't bully Shade so much anymore, ok? He really needs a friend." Without waiting for a reply, Melody threw herself out of the tree and flew off just as the sun set behind the mountains.

* * *

Shade just stood there, his wings limp at his sides as he watched Melody leave. His expression was heartbroken to say at the very least. He hardly noticed when Frieda landed next to him.

"Come with me." She told him gently.

The boy looked up at his mother, not sure what to do.

"Ariel." Frieda stated, "it's for the good of the colony."

Shade's mother sighed and urged him towards their leader. "Shade, go with Frieda."

Eyes lowered, Shade did as his mother asked and followed after the elder.

Bathsheba flew down to the worried Ariel, "It's not like the boy and girl are strong enough to make the migration anyway."

* * *

Shade found himself in a dark cavern like room beneath the tree. The roots of the hollow tree made up the entire ceiling.

"Roost there." Frieda directed and they both clung to the root that hung from the middle of the ceiling.

"I don't understand." Shade looked around in confusion, "where are we?"

"This room is called the echo chamber." Frieda explained to him. "It holds all of our colony's history sung by silverwings long dead. The walls of the chamber are polished so smoothly, they will echo here forever."

The blonde bat's ears twitched as whispers kept coming from nowhere. His eyes darted around trying to find the source. "What's that sound?"

The elder looked impressed. "You can hear it?"

"Well...kind of. It's like- like someone's whispering."

Frieda smiled at his answer. "Someone from hundreds, even thousands of migrations ago."

"What are they saying?"

"You tell me." Frieda said, "simply concentrate and listen. Not everyone has the gift."

Shade closed his eyes and crossed his arms, trying to listen to what the voices were saying. His eyebrows wrinkled in slight frustration. "I hear so many voices. They are all speaking at once."

"Pick one."

Shade concentrated and after a minute he managed to single out one voice. Before he knew it, a story was being told to him.

"_Many seasons passed at the dawning of ages. The birds and the beasts existed without order. No one knew the hunters from the hunted. All creatures struggled for their place in a world without boundaries or laws. Alliances were formed and war was waged between the two great kingdoms. The birds and the beasts. But we bats being both but neither, refused to join the battle. When the war finally ended, the great treaty was forged. Because we refused to take sides, the birds and the beasts banished us for all eternity to the darkness of the night. We were forbidden from glimpsing the sun again." _

Shade opened his eyes, at last understanding coming to him. "Is that how we got stuck with the law?" he asked the elder. "Ugh, that is so unfair!" He growled angrily, "I hate the owls!"

"You must learn to rule your anger and not let your anger rule you." Frieda warned him with a stern tone. "Only foolish deeds will come of that."

Their discussion came to an end when Mercury suddenly flew down to them, looking rather concerned. "Pardon me Frieda. Brutus, the supreme commander of the owls has arrived."

Shade gasped and looked fearfully up where the entrance was located. He was in serious trouble.

* * *

The bats had all gathered outside the tree, muttering nervously to each other as a great horned owl sat waiting on one branch. Frieda landed next to Bathsheba to let her know that she had arrived. "Bathsheba, I'm here now."

"Frieda, I would-" the smaller elder began but was interrupted by her leader.

"Please." Frieda approached the owl and bowed her head before him. "General Brutus, please except my deepest apologies for keeping you waiting."

"Where are the lawbreakers?" Brutus grunted, getting straight to the point.

"He is over there." the elder pointed over to Shade who stood between Chinook and his friends. The other adolescent bats moved away from him, leaving him wide open. Ariel quickly flew up to him and placed her hands on his shoulders protectively.

Brutus stared at Shade for a moment before turning back to Frieda. "And the girl?"

"The girl is long gone." Frieda told him, with her head held high. "She has been banished for her deeds."

Brutus huffed angrily, "Frieda, you know that all lawbreakers are to be handed over to _me._ Not a single bat of your colony is to be spared for such a crime."

"Melody is not of my colony and never has been."

The owl's feathers ruffled, "so instead you let the criminal go?!" He snapped his beak but then seemed to calm himself down. "Very well… if you have banished the girl, then she is fair game for any of my owls."

Shade gasped in horror and his mother held him tighter to her. He flinched when Brutus's giant yellow eyes turned to him.

"Bring the boy to me, so we can settle this."

"No." Frieda replied defiantly.

That did not make the owl happy at all. "Do as I say!"

"I will not."

"Frieda!" Brutus unfurled his wings, making himself look more menacing. "Such a decision jeopardizes the balance of nature!"

The elder bat sighed, "Brutus, you and I have flown in this forest for far too long. You don't really believe that two young bats, glimpsing the sun will upset the balance of nature, do you? Look into your heart."

Brutus was not having any of it. "I will not be manipulated." He growled at her. "Emotions have no place in the execution of the law!"

"My point exactly!" Bathsheba moved next to Frieda. "The owls were well within their-"

"General Brutus!" Frieda once again interrupted the shorter bat, annoyed that Bathsheba would not hold her ugly tongue. "I stand firm on this. No silverwings will be sacrificed for the sake of your unjust law!"

"_UNJUST LAW?!"_ The owl boomed in fury, his feathers standing on end. He flew down to Frieda and lowered his head to level himself to her size. "Give us the boy." He hissed in her face.

"No." The old bat repeated, not backing down a single inch. "I have spoken."

The owl glared at her before a devious smirk curled his beak. "Very well." He pulled away and flew off the branch. "Not only have you let one lawbreaker go free, but you are refusing to give one of your own like the law declares. Prepare to suffer the consequences!" He flew off deeper into the forest.

The bats began chattering to each other nervously, uncertain what Brutus had in store for them. But suddenly Bathsheba gasped in terror and pointed into the distance, "look!"

An army of owls flew at them with branches in their talons lit like torches. The bats were stricken with fear and quickly tried to hide within their tree. The owls dropped the torches onto Tree Haven, causing the home of the silverwings to go up in flames. Screams tore through the air.

Shade and Ariel tried to put out the smaller flames with leaves, even though they knew it was hopeless. Ariel gasped as she noticed that the burning branch above her son broke and without hesitation, pushed him out of harms way, only to get herself caught under it.

"NO!" Shade cried out and rushed over to his mother. He grabbed the branch in an effort to lift it off his mother, but he was not strong enough. "Mom!" He groaned and struggled to get her out to no avail. "Help!" He cried out to the panicking bats. "Help! Somebody help us!"

All the bats were too busy trying to fly away from the burning tree. The only one who paid any attention to his cries was Chinook, much to Shade's astonishment. "Chinook!"

The older teenage bat landed next to him and grabbed the branch. "You need some muscle runt. Let me in there!" The both of them grunted and pulled at the wood together. Thankfully with their combined strength, they managed to lift the branch up high enough to allow Ariel to crawl out from under it.

Both the young bats breathed heavily, tired from the labor. Shade turned to the taller bat and placed a hand on his arm. "Thanks Chinook." He gratefully thanked him. " I owe you one."

Chinook sighed and motioned towards the tree and the scattering bats above them. "Look around. It's not just me you owe." He opened his wings and flew off into the crowd.

Shade watched him leave with a forlorn expression before helping his mother up. Quickly they too followed the rest of the colony deeper into the woods.

"Silverwings!" Frieda called out to the rest of her panicking colony, "Retreat! We must all retreat! Now!" Managing to direct the rest of the bats away from the tree and into the forest, they all took refuge in the forest.

Shade and his mother safely managed to land on a branch and turned to look at their once called home. Ariel gasped in pain and clutched her arm.

Alarmed, Shade held her up. "Mom! Can you fly?"

"Don't worry about me." Ariel soothed her son, "I'm ok. Save Tree Haven."

The small bat looked sadly at his mother and lowered his eyes, feeling completely hopeless. "It's too late." The bats all watched as their tree slowly turned to ashes...their home...the very place that they all were born in...it was gone.

* * *

Not too far away, on the other side of the lake, Melody watched in horror as Tree Haven was engulfed into flames. Parts of it were falling into the water below, quenching the fire. Her thoughts raced to Shade and Ariel. Were they ok? The owls did not take Shade away, did they? She did not know. Wrapping herself tightly in her wings, she hung from a shaded peachleaf willow tree and cried, trying to drown out the horrified screams that came from the silverwings.

* * *

**A/N**: First of all, I want to deeply thank **mchap1154 **for the wonderful and inspiring review. I am so happy that you are enjoying my OC! I was so worried on what people would think of her. I'm glad that I'm doing at least something right. I'll see you all next time on chapter 6!


	6. The Storm

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 6: **The Storm

Shade had lost practically everything that was dear to him. Tree Haven was burning down with no chance of saving it. Melody was banished from the colony, and now the owls were after her. He lost what little respect he had from his fellow silverwings, and he almost lost his mother from the collapsing branch. All of this was his fault; not Melody's, not Frieda's, not even that chickenwing Chinook...it was _his_.

A cruel chuckle broke Shade out of his daze and he fearfully glanced up to see Brutus perched on a branch above him. That owl caught the young bat's eyes and he smirked evilly. Just that smirk told Shade that Brutus directed all the blame of what is happening on him. Brutus spread open his wings and cried out with triumph, "Justice has been served!" before he finally took off and flew away with his birds.

Shade angrily bared his teeth at the retreating owl. Justice? _Justice?!_ Where was the justice in depriving a colony of mothers and pups of their home?! And for what? Just because he wanted to see the sun for himself. He clenched his fists, barely able to contain his rising rage. At that moment he wished that he was the size of a wolf so he could sink his fangs into that general.

Hearing the faint hint of whispers, the blonde bat turned back to see flame-like images of various animals rising and dissipating from the smoke.

"W-what's that strange smoke coming from the fire?" Breeze stammered from her tree.

"The echo's of our history has been lost." The aged leader of the colony explained to the young bat and to the rest of her subjects. "But history is kept in memory as well. As long as silverwings fly, our heritage will never be lost." She comforted everyone gently with those words.

Hearing that made Shade more guilt ridden however. Not only did he was the cause for their home being burnt down, but he also was at fault for destroying their ancestor's archives. He sadly turned to his mother, "what now?"

"I'm not sure." She replied honestly.

"Does your wing hurt? Can you fly?"

Ariel placed a consoling hand on Shade's shoulder, "I'll be fine."

Nearby, Bathsheba flew over to Frieda and began complaining loudly, just so the boy could hear them. "We'd still have our home if we handed that troublemaker over to the owls!"

"Finding a new home is easier than replacing a child." the elder tried to reason with her adviser. When Bathsheba had no snide remarks to reply with, Frieda glided over to a higher branch and announced to her colony. "Since our home has been destroyed, we must begin our migration to hibernaculum early."

"Unbelievable!" Bathsheba rebuked Frieda, unable to keep from degrading her leader with every chance that she got. "Sacrificing our summer roost for a scrawny bat too small to make the migration anyway."

Shade was appalled. "Too small?!" His prideful outburst made nearby families to glare down at him with either cold indifference or pity. The young bat felt himself fall deeper into despair. He couldn't admit it to himself that perhaps Bathsheba was right. Even if he was a stronger flyer than Melody...it did not mean that he was strong enough. Wanting to be proved wrong, he searched for at least one bat that seemed to have confidence in him. Spotting Chinook and his friends, Shade hoped that at least they would send signs of encouragement. Instead, he got pity. Chinook noticed that Shade was looking at him, and his pitying expression hardened. He curled his body away as if to say, 'what do you want from me?'

Oh Nocturna, how much he wished Melody was here. Just one friend who would never turn her back on him like everyone else was doing.

"Dawn is coming soon." Mercury alerted Frieda. "We have to start moving."

The elder turned back to her colony, "Silverwings! We must ready our children for the long journey ahead."

Putting on a brave face, Shade looked at his mother and said, "I _can_ make it."

"Of course you can." Ariel replied soothingly and placed her hands on his shoulders. "Shade, I have to sing our migration sound map to you now. You need to know the way to our winter roost."

Disbelief was written all over the young bat's face, "the whole thing?!" he exclaimed. How would he remember anything?

"There's no time to sing it to you in stages." His mother explained. "Like we usually do…"

Realizing there was no other way, Shade sighed and agreed with uncertainty. "Ok…"

"Close your eyes and listen well."

Shade did as he was told and closed his eyes, still unsure if he would get everything in one go. His mother began to sing the map out to him and he concentrated as well as he could. A scenery bloomed in his mind. He first saw their Tree Haven, and then a barn, a lighthouse, a large city, a cathedral, a line of electrical power cords stretching up to two towers with fire, a pine tree with a broken tip that was shaped like an arrow, a gorge, a snowy mountain that looked like wolf ears, an airport, and then finally a river that just ended in mist. Overwhelmed with the information, Shade groaned and clutched his head. He staggered before losing his balance and falling off the branch. Thankfully, he managed to catch himself in the air and flew back to his mother.

"Did you get all of it Shade?" She asked.

"I uh…" Shade began uncertainly, "I think so."

Just like with Shade, the other mother bats also sang their soundmap to their pups while Frieda looked off at the distance. She closed her eyes and took a step back as a strong wind began to blow. It was so strong, that it nearly blew Mercury off his feet. Deciding it was time to go, Frieda began to lead her colony out of the woods. One by one, the bats flew after their leader. Mercury flew up to Ariel and her son, "hurry up you two!" before following after Frieda.

Ariel turned to Shade with a smile, "ready?"

The boy bat returned her smile, "ready." He followed his mother and joined up with their now migrating colony.

* * *

Hearing the sound of the squeaking of the silverwing colony, Melody lifted her head towards the distance. Indeed, there they were flying among the twilight sky towards hibernaculum one week early. Melody shivered and her wings tightened against her furry body as the wind became stronger, rustling the trees and scattering the dead orange leaves. Her hazel eyes squeezed shut from the cold before looking back at the departing silverwings. She had to get south somehow, and right now...those bats were her only hope. While she wasn't able to fly with them, she could still follow after them.

Nodding to herself as she agreed to this plan, Melody spread open her wings and detached herself from her tree. "Whoa!" The strong wind made her wobble in the air for a second before she finally gained control of her wings. Oh boy, this was not going to be easy...especially since the wind was blowing in the opposite direction. As well as she could, she followed after the silverwing colony doing her best to stay close enough to them so she wouldn't lose sight of them, but at the same time… far enough away so they wouldn't notice her following.

* * *

Meanwhile, Chinook had a strong start to this migration. While he was more ahead from the other young bats, his heart was not into gloating. His mind was so far off that he did not even notice Todd catching up to him.

"Nice going, chickenwing." The chubby bat scorned up at him.

Chinook bristled at the insult. "What do you mean?"

"Well, this is as much as _your_ fault as Shade's." Todd accused him with a glare.

"What?!"

"If you didn't take up Shade on that stupid dare, this never would have happened! Tree Haven would be still standing, and Melody wouldn't be lost out there somewhere with owls breathing down her neck!"

That struck a nerve in Chinook and he bared his fangs at Todd. "I'll show you who's a chicken." He swooped down at the chubbier bat, intending to strike him. Todd easily dodged out of the way and snapped down at him.

"Chinook, just remember. _I _know what you did."

The dark blue bat glared angrily up at Todd before a look of unease swept over him. After having Todd tell him all of this, a seed of guilt began to grow.

* * *

The strong wind had blown a single leaf off course all the way to a large city in the south. The dead leaf got sucked into a ventilation shaft in one certain building and into a certain hot and humid room filled with exotic trees and plants. This room seemed to be separated by a glass wall that was connected to a science like laboratory with wired machinery and different colored vials containing chemicals. This laboratory would have Elliot screaming for joy by seeing all it's various advanced technology.

But given that this _was _Elliot, his reactions were more subdued.

"This is incredible!" He gasped out as he leaned in to observe the blue screen on the monitor of one large wired machine. "Boy, what would I give to have something like this back at my lab in Orlando."

"I'm surprised you don't." An elderly scientist replied back to him. "But given your remarkable talent, I'm sure you can create something just as extraordinary, my boy."

The raven haired man smiled up at him, "I can't thank you enough for letting me stay with you while I'm doing my research, grandpa."

The old man gave a hearty laugh and patted Elliot on the back. "Think nothing of it, sonny. Going out and expanding your horizons is exactly what I approve of. Which is why I am allowing you to use all this equipment to help you with your research."

"This is more than I hope for." Elliot sighed and slid a finger across the metal table in front of him. 'Perhaps I can create something to turn Melody human again.' he thought to himself hopefully. He looked up at the glass encased room beyond the machinery. "What kind of bats do you have in there?"

"Spectral bats. Two of which were brought all the way from Central America."

"Vampyrum Spectrum, huh?" Elliot murmured before turning back to his grandfather, "Grandpa, you wouldn't have happened to have seen any silver haired bats flying about yet, have you?"

"Hmm..no not yet." The old man stroked his white beard in thought, "But I do know that they usually migrate south through here around this time. It shouldn't be long when they do pass through this city."

"That gives me little time." Elliot took off his backpack and placed all his contents out on the silver table.

"Elliot, it's getting late and we are closing soon. Perhaps you would like to get this started tomorrow morning?"

"No, the sooner the better." Elliot shook his head and sat down in a rolling chair while pulling out his laptop and plugging it in. 'I can't afford to waste any time. If Melody is smart, then I know that she will try to go south to find her way home. As a bat, she would try to stick close to a silver haired colony, the very ones that could be passing through this city. At least...I hope she would.' The young scientist was playing off complete dumb luck here. He did not even know if she was going to be with the same colony that passes through here each year.

"Alright...just be careful on getting yourself home." His grandfather picked up his raincoat and umbrella. Lightning flashed from outside the window. "There is one strong storm a brewing."

"I'll take a cab." Elliot reassured him. He said goodbye to his grandfather before going back to work with DD sitting below his chair, shaking and clinging to his leg. The penguin bot did not like thunderstorms one bit. The raven haired man lightly bit his thumb in worry as thunder rumbled loudly outside. "I hope Melody is alright in this weather."

Unbeknownst to the scientist, inside the fake jungle room, a large spectrum bat walked up to the very leaf that had just been blown into the room. Picking the leaf with his sharp claw, he hummed to himself in thought before looking towards the shaft from whence it came.

* * *

Lightning flashed above Melody as she struggled to keep up after the silverwings. She was terrified to say of the very least. She never did like storms, and growing up in a hurricane state, she had to live through them one too many times. She always hid in her closet with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders and hands placed over her ears. While this storm was nothing close to a hurricane, being a tiny bat made it feel like one.

The icy cold rain weighed down on her already raw and tired wings. The howling wind hurt her ears and stung her eyes. She carefully made sure that she flew low so she could lessen the risk of being struck by lightning, but high enough that the ocean's waves did not crash against her. Oh heavens, how much she wished to be home.

Melody whimpered as the thunder roared. She wanted to be able to plug her sensitive bat ears, but the flying bit kept her from doing so. Looking up after the silverwing colony, she realized in horror that they were starting leave her behind. Her arms were aching and felt extremely heavy. Melody knew that if she kept this up, the wind would start knocking her off course and she wouldn't have the strength to fly anymore. She'd fall into the raging ocean below her and drown.

Shivering from fear and the cold, the girl spotted something in the distance coming closer. Squinting her eyes through darkness, she happily realized that it was an island! Changing direction, Melody put in all her strength just to reach that island. She knew that resting there would mean losing track of the colony, but in her condition..she had no choice.

* * *

"Heavy gusts!" Frieda cried out to her colony, squinting to keep the rain out of her eyes. "Keep in tight formation!" At her command, the bats all drew closer together, forming an oval shape.

Shade panted as he flapped his wings twice the speed of everyone else, trying to keep up with his mother but steadily falling behind. The poor young bat was completely exhausted.

Chinook flew down to him and with a strange change in character, he attempted to cheer on the smaller bat before flying ahead. "Come on! I know you can do it runt."

Shade tried to force his wings to carry him faster but to his chagrin, it wasn't doing him much good.

"You're lagging too far behind!" Bathsheba shouted to him as she passed by. "Hang on to your mother, boy!" She shook her head at him and continued on.

Shade flinched and grunted as lightning flashed, feeling his wings growing heavier and heavier by the second.

"Cling to me Shade!" He heard his mother calling to him, slowing her pace until she was right under him.

"No!" Shade gasped out, his breathing labored. "You're hurt! I'm fine. I can keep up!" He flapped his wings even harder.

But then out of nowhere, a huge streak of lightning struck down through the colony, causing a strong shock wave which scattered the bats around. Caught off guard, Shade was caught in the wave and was sent backwards, spiraling down towards the ocean. "_AHH!"_

"_SHADE!_" Ariel screamed.

Mercury heard her distressed scream and swooped down after the young bat. "Shade!" He tried to reach for the boy, but he was already out of sight.

"_MOM! MERCURY! HELP!" _

* * *

The brunette gasped for air as she strained to reach the wooden hut right ahead. Slipping through a crack below the roof, she finally made it. The inside of the hut was moldy and abandoned, but for Melody, this place was heaven sent. Curling her feet around a rope that stretched across the ceiling, the girl finally could catch her breath. Soaking wet and shivering, she squeaked in fear as another bright flash came from outside. Scared, exhausted and hungry, Melody curled in on herself and began to sob. Everything was just too much! She wanted to be home, in bed listening to celtic music on her ipod. She missed her family, she missed Shade, she even missed soot haired Elliot.

"Hey, are you ok?" A concerned female voice asked her.

Startled, Melody flared open her wings and glanced up to see an eastern red bat with beige fur and reddish wings making her way towards Melody across the rope. She had long light blonde hair, lighter than Shade's. She was about the same size as her, and had dazzling green eyes. She seemed to be exactly Melody's age, older than Shade but with more mature features. "Easy! Take it easy!" She tried to calm the girl down, her voice deliberately soft.

"Wh-who are you?" Melody croaked, her throat feeling hoarse from crying.

"My name is Marina." The strange bat replied, "who are you?"

Melody looked down at the ground before answering, "Melody."

"Are you ok, Melody?" Marina touched the brunette's hair. "You are soaking wet! Did you get blown to this island by the storm?"

"Sort of." Melody sniffed before starting to cry again.

It made Marina uneasy, "hey, hey, hey...don't cry. You're safe now, you see?" She spread her arm around to gesture to the hut. "It's nice and dry in here. No one else is in here besides us. You know, you are pretty lucky to wind up on my island."

"Your island?"

"Yeah." The other bat smiled, looking quite proud of herself, "it _all_ belongs to me. There are no other bats around here. I dont usually take kindly to trespassers but..." She trailed off a bit and folded her arms. "I think I can make an acception for you."

Melody wiped her eyes, "Yeah? How come?"

"You seem lost. I...don't feel very good about turning away someone who needs help and-" Marina trailed off, catching sight of Melody's silver band.

"And?"

"You have a band!" Marina gasped, bringing her hands over her mouth. "You're just like me!"

"Huh?" Melody blinked with confusion until Marina lifted up her own arm and showed her own silver band.

"I think I know what happened to you." The light colored bat stared intently at Melody. "You were banished from your colony."

The brunette's puffy eyes widened in astonishment. "How did you know that?"

"It's because these bands are cursed!" Marina pointed at hers, leaning closer to Melody. "Once a human puts one on you, no one will ever want to be close to you. Oh, you don't have to worry about me though. Since I already have one, I don't count."

"Were _you_ banished?" Melody inquired curiously.

Marina winced, realizing that she gave her own backstory away by chattering about the bands. She squirmed uncomfortably before admitting it. "Yeah...I don't really want to talk about it." She quickly perked up however, "But you know- now that you have no place to go, you are welcome to stay here with me on my island. It gets kinda boring talking to myself."

Melody yawned, feeling sleepy. The storm was lightening up into a drizzle and the sound was lulling her to sleep.

Marina noticed and smiled with understanding. "I think I'll go catch a few bugs. You stay and rest here. Dawn is approaching soon, so get some shut eye. You look like you need it."

Melody hummed in response, her eyes already closed and wings cozily blanketing her. Talking to Marina helped her relax and forget the storm outside. She could almost hear the lyrics from 'Reach For Me Now' by Cirque Du Soleil playing in her head as she fell asleep.

* * *

Dawn began to clear the sky over the beach on the island. Among the sand, there were piles of seaweed that were washed up onto the shore. Something in the seaweed twitched and a furry head poked out, coughing up the salty sea water. He stuck out his tongue, trying to spit it all out. He never tasted anything like it, and he found it disgusting. Shade scanned his surroundings cautiously, not knowing where he was. "H-hello?" he called out nervously. "Anybody?" He heard something scuttering behind a large rock and he raised an eyebrow, "hello?" he tried again. Still not seeing what was behind the stone, the young bat used his echolocation to try and find out what it was.

A crab crawled out on top of the rock, snipping its pincers, followed by two more. They did not seem very friendly as they crawled towards the entangled bat. Shade gasped and flinched back, not sure what those things were. He knew though that getting caught in those pincers would mean a lot of pain and trouble. He tried to avoid their snapping pincers as they attacked him. "Whoa! Hey come on!" Shade cried out, trying to get out of the seaweed. Luckily, the crabs missed and cut the seaweed instead, releasing the bat. Quickly Shade flew out of their reach and into the woods.

He first tried to hide in the bushes, but something big inside growled at him, forcing him to turn around. Shade flew into a hole in the tree but was immediately chased out by another feral creature. Scared and lost, the young bat got distracted by his surroundings and smacked face first into a totem pole. Regaining his balance, he sped towards an abandoned hut. He looked over his shoulder to see the sun rising, making him fly even faster. Before the sunlight hit his wings, he managed to dive into a crack in the building. He perched on a nearby rope, breathing hard. "Where...am I?"

Looking down, a few pots on the ground clattered around a bit with mice running about. Noticing that nothing down there was of any real danger to him, Shade let out a yawn and wrapped his wings around himself. Letting out a sad sigh, he fell asleep.

* * *

In the laboratory, Elliot had fallen asleep on the table with his head buried in his arms. DD was plugged into a nearby outlet and was recharging in a corner, his eyes closed as well. Neither of them noticed that in the fake jungle room, the large spectrum bat flew up to the air vent and used his razor sharp claw to peel around the metal and pry the shaft open with amazing strength. He slipped through the opening, chuckling darkly at his escape.

* * *

It wasn't until the sun was setting when Shade finally woke up again. He rubbed his eyes before stiffening when he realized that he was not alone in the building. Something moved from the corner of his eye and he used his echolocation to try and identify what it was. Whatever it was ducked behind the wooden beams before it could reach it. The young bat looked around the room before turning around.

Another bat was staring right back at him.

"Gah!" Shade flinched back with a startled yell. The strange bat screamed as well and hid behind the nearby pole before peeking out again, frowning with curiosity.

"Gee, you're like a bat...only smaller." She said.

Shade uncovered his eyes with his wings before asking, "who are you?"

"Not so fast!" The beige bat with orange wings snapped at him. "I ask the questions around here. What's your name?"

"Shade." the smaller bat answered as he climbed closer over to her. "What's yours?"

The female bat ignored his question. "And what do you think _you're_ doing on _my _island?" She glared at him distrustfully.

"I got separated from my colony." Shade replied before tilting his head with confusion as he studied her appearance, "what's wrong with your fur?"

"Wrong-?" She huffed, her green eyes narrowing at him. She placed her hands on her hips, looking rather insulted. "What do you mean? There is _nothing_ wrong with my fur."

"It's all...light."

The female bat blinked at him before letting out a short laugh. "Ha!" She rolled her eyes at Shade's naivety. "Small _and _clueless. I'm a brightwing, of course!"

"I didn't know there were other kinds of bats." Shade admitted, astonishment written all over his face.

"Where have you been living? Under a rock?"

"No!" Shade turned his eyes away and muttered, "In a tree…"

"So, how did you get separated from your colony?" She inquired. "Did they..um... banish you?"

The boy's eyes widened at her question, "W-what?! No! I- I was blown off course!" He exclaimed.

"Really?" The other bat grinned at him mockingly, not believing him one bit. "Sure your wings weren't just big enough to keep you _on_ course?" She spread open her wings, they were indeed far more larger than his.

Shade furrowed his brows, her attitude was starting to remind him of a certain bat back home. "I don't need this." He growled and turned away, taking off. "I'm outta here."

"By the way!" The girl bat followed after him, not sounding like she cared if her words had hurt his feelings. "I had another visitor last night."

"Tch- and I care why?" Shade scoffed, trying to get away from her.

"Just thought you might know her. She's a silverwing like you."

That put Shade to a stop in midair. He turned around to face the brightwing. "What?" The brightwing angled her head over to a dark corner on the other side of the room. The small bat blinked as he recognized the figure roosting in the corner, fast asleep. His blue eyes lit up and a smile spread over his face. He couldn't believe it! "_Melody!"_ Without pausing to think, the young bat sped over to his friend and glomped her off her rope. They both fell onto the soft moss which just luckily happened to be on the ground.

"Huh?! What?!" Melody exclaimed, blinking her eyes open, unsure of what had just happened. She felt something holding onto her tightly and she roughly pushed whatever or whoever it was away. "What on earth-" Her voice got stuck in her throat once she realized that her attacker was no other than Shade. He pushed himself off the ground, laughing with exhilaration. "Shade?" she gasped out with disbelief.

"Melody!" The blonde bat beamed at her, "you're here! You're actually here!"

An amazed laugh escaped from the brunette. "Oh my God, Shade! You're ok!" She threw her wings around him in a tight hug, which he returned without a moment of hesitation. "The owls didn't get you! I was so scared that night when they burnt down Tree Haven. I thought you got handed over to the owls!"

"Frieda protected me." Shade explained as he pressed his cheek against her soft brown mane. "She refused to give me up, so the owls decided to light our home on fire instead."

The news was horrible, but Melody couldn't help but laugh. Here she was stuck on an island with no lead onto how to get home now that the silverwings were gone. But somehow by some miracle, Shade was here too. She looked up at the rope that she once hung from. "You know...one of these days you might wake me up normally."

* * *

**A/N**: And there you have it dudes and chicks. The song that I mentioned is called "Reach for Me Now" by Cirque Du Soleil. I would have posted the lyrics in here, but fanfiction has this rule where it is against copyright to do so. Kinda hypocritical if you ask me, considering that we are all using copyright characters from movies, shows, and books to write our fics. Well, all I can suggest is for you to find the song on youtube and listen to it. It's a good song.

**Mchap1154** - Oh, is that a challenge? -grins- I SHALL MAKE THEE WEEP ALL THY BODY FLUIDS! Heehee. Just kidding. Thanks for reviewing again!

See you all in chapter 7.


	7. Marina

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 7**: Marina

"I take it you two know each other." Marina hung above the two silverwings, with an amused smile.

"Yes, by the way." Melody separated herself from Shade with a curious expression. "How did you get here? I thought your colony was flying past the island and not toward it."

"Yeah...about that." Shade looked away sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I sort of got separated from them." He hesitantly peeked over at his friend, almost afraid that she would start making fun of his small wings too. Instead of laughing at him, Melody was sympathetic.

"I'm sorry. The storm was pretty bad." She admitted, "Even I had to stop following you guys and turn around to land on the island."

"Wait...you were following us?"

"I don't exactly know which way is south." Melody shrugged as if it was no big deal. "Following you felt like the best idea at the time."

"Well, while the two of you are stuck here, how about I give you guys a quick tour?" Marina flew around them, looking more excited that she had company than she tried to seem.

Shade frowned at Marina, still rather upset at her teasing. "What makes you think we want one?"

"Shade?" Melody raised a brow at her friend, not knowing where he got this sudden sour attitude from. "What's with you?"

"Nothing." He grumbled, looking away.

"He's just pouting because he couldn't keep up with his colony, that's all." The other female explained before landing between the two friends, wrapping her wings around both their shoulders with an amused grin. "Come on. You'll need to know where _my_ territory lies. Stretch out your wings a bit. Who knows, maybe they'll even grow out."

Oh. So that was why. Melody saw Shade tense up under Marina's touch, looking like he had a comeback, but was doing his best to keep himself from saying it. The other female bat didn't seem like she was trying put him down. It felt more like Marina was trying to get acquainted with him, but just happened to use the wrong approach. If Melody had met Marina around the same time as Shade did, she probably would have felt irked by her as well.

Realizing that she would have to be the one to say something to somehow lessen the building tension that was developing in her sensitive friend, Melody broke out in a cheerful smile. "Now that you mention it, my wings are very flimsy. Flying around would do me good."

That seemed to settle it for Marina as she flew up. "Great! At least with me showing you around, you won't get lost."

"Tch! Don't do us any favors." Shade muttered under his breath before flying off the ground. He paused for a second as he remembered something. "Do you need help?" He asked Melody.

She smiled humorlessly and shrugged. "Like always."

Shade wordlessly grabbed her by the scruff of her mane and began to pull her up the moment when she began flapping as well. "One of these days..." Melody grunted as she tried to get the air support she needed. "I will stop being so pathetic and learn to take off like a normal bat."

The boy bat gave a breathy laugh. "Where's the fun in being normal?"

"Point taken."

"Not that I'm telling you _not_ to get stronger-"

"Got it."

"Hey! What is taking you two?" Marina flew back to them when she noticed that were lagging far behind. She blinked at the strange sight of Shade trying to help Melody to start flying. "What _are _you doing?"

"Remember what I said about my wings being flimsy?" Melody huffed, "I wasn't kidding."

Marina was quite bewildered at that. Then she sighed and made her way over to Shade, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "Move over short stuff. It will take us until daybreak for you to actually pull her up high enough." She grabbed Melody's brown fur in her feet and with no warning, lifted her with so much more ease that Shade lost momentum next to her. "Whoa!"

"Ok, I'm good!" Melody smiled as the floor grew farther away. "You can let go!" Feeling their grip on her fur disappear, the brunette started off with a glide, letting the air puff up her wings before swooping back up. "Phew! Thanks!"

"What kind of a bat are you? You act as if you have never flown in your life before." Marina asked with a curious frown.

Melody laughed and flew over to the exit, "That's because I just became a bat not too long ago. I'm human."

"Sure…" Marina shook her head, not believing a word the other girl said before turning to Shade, "and what are you? A giant furry blue moth?" She didn't wait for his answer as she followed after Melody with a giggle.

"A moth?!" Shade growled angrily and muttered under his breath, "I am a silverwing! Who does she think she is anyway?"

"Oh!" The brightwing suddenly was in his face again with a smirk and he jerked back with a surprised gasp. She obviously had heard his muttering. "By the way, my name is Marina."

Shade watched as she slipped through the broken piece of wood in the wall before following after her and Melody. He quickly caught up to his friend and noticed her grinning at him. He wasn't sure that he liked that grin. "What?"

"She totally likes you." Melody bit her lip from bursting into hysterical laughter as Shade's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.

"What?!" Shade hissed in disgust, "That stuck up she-bat?! Are you out of your mind?"

"You know, teasing doesn't always mean belittling, right? She was probably trying to lighten up the mood considering that you were separated from your colony." Seeing no response from Shade, Melody frowned. "Give her a chance. She's actually really sweet."

Shade sighed before looking in Melody's direction. "Well...if it wasn't for her, I guess I wouldn't have found you again."

The girl smiled, glad that he was starting to lighten up. "Exactly."

"Hey slowpokes! Hurry up before I start thinking that I'm talking to myself up here!" Marina shouted back down at them.

Melody caught Shade's unconvinced look that clearly stated 'you still think she's sweet?' and giggled before speeding up over to Marina. The small blue bat let out a sigh before smiling a little himself, quickly following suit.

* * *

When Marina said that this was _her_ island, she wasn't kidding. The three young bats had circled the entire place from start to finish, through the forest and along the sandy coast of the ocean bank. "From the barnacle covered rocks to the old cedar tree, that's mine. And from the waterfall to the north cove, _that's _mine."

"You have this whole place to yourself?!" Shade could barely believe his ears. Melody didn't blame him. Most people couldn't afford to visit an island much less own one. Of course, Marina was a bat so she had one free of charge.

"Pretty much."

"Man, what wouldn't I give to have an entire island to myself?" Melody scanned the entire green island with her eyes. It wasn't as extravagant or large like the Hawaiian islands, but it still was impressive. "No mortgages, no college classes, no part time jobs." Thinking about it, being a bat wasn't so bad after all. The only thing she would have to be concerned about is hunting and staying safe.

"I don't know what any of those things are...but yeah. It is pretty neat, isn't it?" Marina chuckled.

"Wow." Shade let out a breath in amazement, "We are totally surrounded by water!"

Marina rolled her eyes at Shade's lack of experience of the world. "Well duh! That's what an island is."

"What are those?"

Melody looked down to where Shade was looking to see a pod of black and white whales singing and surfacing to breathe. She had only seen such creatures in SeaWorld. It was still incredible seeing them in their natural habitat. "Those are orcas. I've never seen so many before."

Suddenly Marina gave an excited laugh and swooped down towards the marine animals. Not wanting to get left behind, Shade quickly followed after her. Both bats dodged a strong spray of air and water droplets from the blowhole of one whale. Melody however stayed back, keeping her distance from the animals. "Guys?" She called down to them nervously.

Neither Shade nor Marina heard her as they flew around the orcas. "Can't handle the pace, kid?" Marina quipped back at Shade who was struggling to keep up with her.

"What?! Huh. I was just- uh… getting my bearings." He panted. Shade wasn't going to let the brightwing best him. He was determined to show her that he was just a great flyer as she was. He was going to make her eat those words that she said about him before. Well- at least he hoped to.

"Look, you're obviously too small to make it back to the mainland, nevermind catching up with your colony...so…"

"I don't care. I'm not going back." Shade cut her off sharply.

"You and Melody can hang with me!" Marina finished cheerfully. Suddenly, Shade's words clicked in her brain and she backtracked with a start. "Wait- you don't _care_? What's that about?"

"We broke the law." The light blue bat answered reluctantly. "We looked at the sun."

Marina gave a horrified gasp and her green eyes widened in shock. She paused in the air, letting Shade fly ahead of her. In that moment of shock, Marina forgot to flap and began to fall before she caught herself and quickly caught up with Shade who made his way to a cedar tree and hung down off it's branch.

Melody huffed and puffed as she flew over to her companions. "Phew! You guys sure fly fast. Nearly lost me back there." She hung next to Shade who had a gloomy expression on his face and a bewildered Marina. The brunette blinked for a moment, not sure what happened during that course of time that she was trying to catch up to them. "What's eating you two?"

"You both looked at the _sun_?" The brightwing bat exclaimed, causing Melody to flinch back. "Oh! You're pulling my wing." Marina guessed with a laugh. "It's just like that joke you made with Melody being a human."

Shade and Melody looked at each other with guilty expressions before turning to Marina. "No, we really did." The boy bat insisted.

"And I'm seriously a human being. Well..was." Melody added with a mumble.

"The owls found out and destroyed our home." Shade explained with sad eyes. "And because Melody isn't a member of my colony, she was banished and now the owls are after her. And it's all my fault." He closed his eyes shamefully.

"Wait- what?" Melody blurt out, looking extremely confused and equally disturbed. "What's that part with the owls being after me? I think I sort of missed that detail."

Her friend sighed and looked her in the eyes. She could tell he was going to have a hard time explaining this to her. "I'm sorry Melody. You see...um...The owl general stated that since you were banished instead of being turned over to him, you are now fair game to any owl that lays eyes on you."

Melody's jaw went slack. Well, that was just swell. Peachy even. "Great." Melody rubbed her temples with her fingers. "Two days as a bat, and I'm already banished and placed on the most wanted list. What _else_ could possibly go wrong..._GAH!_ No!" The other two bats stared at her with confusion as she began to spazz her wings about. "Forget that I said that! _PLEASE_ forget that I said that! Murphy's law, please don't bite me in the butt for that!"

"What are you-" Marina began.

"It's a human saying." Melody explained dejectedly to her friends, playing with her brown fur. "What can go wrong, will go wrong. And I have almost jinxed myself by asking 'what else could go wrong.' It's like, the number one thing that a person should never say." Taking in a deep breath she tried to get back on track. "So...what started this conversation anyway?"

Marina decided not to dwell too long on Melody's random rant. The things she was saying just weren't making much sense. In fact, the lack of sense began to make the whole 'human' idea _make_ sense. "Shade said that he wasn't going back to his colony."

"What?" The other female bat cried out, turning to Shade who avoided her eyes. "Why would you even say that?"

"The colony is better off without me." Shade replied softly. "I slow everyone down. I came up with the dumb idea of looking at the sun. Besides, I can't just leave you out here alone now that I found you again."

Melody didn't know what to say to that. She wanted to tell Shade that he was being silly and should not give up on himself, that it was just as much as his fault as it was hers, but the whole part of him not wanting to leave her behind struck her speechless. That was just about one of the nicest things anyone has told her. For a minute, no one said a word. The only thing that kept the night completely quiet was the sound of crickets chirping.

Feeling rather bad for both Shade and Melody, Marina thought to herself for a moment before landing on the branch upright below them with an encouraging smile. "Well...hey. It could have been a lot worse. You know...that whole…_Mamphy's_ law or whatever you called it?"

Shade barely paid attention to her as his eyes caught the sight of her silver band shimmering in the moonlight. "You've got a band!"

"What band?" Marina instinctively hid her arm behind her back before quickly realizing that she already shared it with Melody, so it was rather pointless to hide it. "Oh, you mean this band?" She hesitantly took it out again and glared at the silverwing. "Yeah, so? Melody has one too. Got a problem with it?"

"No." Shade quickly rebutted, rather surprised that Marina would take offense about it so quickly. "Should I?"

"Don't you know? It's cursed."

"Wha?! C-cursed?"

"Huh?" Melody looked at her own band then back at the other two again. "No it's not." She faintly recalled Marina telling her about their curse yesterday, but she was too tired back then to argue against it.

Marina quickly changed the subject, "I'm hungry. Let's hunt." She took off first before Shade and Melody looked at each other with questioning glances and followed after her.

Melody was quite thankful that Marina suggested that they'd hunt. Her stomach felt like it was starting to devour itself. It also gave her the opportunity to learn how to hunt like a bat. Closing her eyes, she let out her echolocation which in return came back to her with a vivid colorful image of a tiger moth. She never did get to try one of those. Forgetting her initial distaste for insects, the brunette sped after it.

"Huh? Melody?" Shade blinked as he noticed her suddenly change course and fly after the moth.

"Does she even know how to hunt?" Marina looked over to Shade, "Tiger moths are no easy prey."

"No, I don't think she ever tried to hunt before." The smaller bat shook his head, he thought about lending Melody his help, but then decided that it would be best if she gave this her own effort. She would never learn if he kept helping her.

"Well, this is going to take all night."

Melody had completely tuned the entire world out. It was only her and the moth. She sped past the trees, never losing sight of the moth the moment she laid eyes on it. Was it instinct or just luck? The girl didn't know, but whatever it was- it was helping her close in on her prey. In fact, both Shade and Marina were flabbergasted to see her sneak over it and swipe down sharply at the moth with her wing, stunning the bug before grasping it in her clawed feet.

Melody took to a nearby tree and greedily bit the tiger moth's head right off along with its upper torso. Wow, Shade was right...tiger moths _are_ delicious! She stuffed the rest of the insect into her mouth the moment the two other bats rested on both sides of her.

"Wow! Melody- that was incredible!" Shade exclaimed. "First try, and you landed a _tiger moth_! Only Chinook ever managed to get one when he first started flying."

"Quick thinking with using your wing to stun the moth." Marina couldn't help but praise the other bat. "That's actually a pretty neat trick! I hope you don't mind if I use that next time?"

Melody licked off her fingertips and gave a shrug. "Sure. Actually, I wasn't even certain that I was going to catch it. It was probably dumb luck."

"Perhaps, or maybe you are a natural."

"Yeah!" Shade agreed with enthusiasm. "Did you see how Melody dodged through those thick branches like it was nothing? That takes skill."

Melody blushed at the compliments and cracked a smile. "Well...at least I can do one thing right. I was starting to think that I was going to be a terrible bat."

Marina frowned slightly at that before hesitantly asking, "You…really are human. Aren't you?"

The other female bat let her smile falter before becoming perfectly serious. "Yes." There was an uncomfortable silence until Melody nervously broke it. "Does that bother you?"

"No!" Marina said quickly before her eyes involuntarily shifted away, "Yes? Maybe?" She gave up and sighed. Without looking at Melody she began to explain, "You see- I was out hunting one night, alone. Suddenly I was hanging in mid air, caught in this huge net!"

Melody's heart began to drop.

"Then- this giant hand reached in and...that's when they banded me." The brightwing hung her head, depressed.

"Then what happened?" Shade asked.

"I flew home. But when the other brightwings saw me with this _band_," Marina glared at the silver bracelet around her left wrist with contempt. "They banished me."

Melody felt horrible. While she was not the one who banded Marina, as a human and as someone who works with people who band bats, she felt responsible for what happened to the brightwing. She really liked Marina and did not want the other girl to hate her for what she was.

"Why?" Shade couldn't seem to believe that her colony abandoned her for such a reason.

Marina's voice grew cold, growing angrier as she talked. "When the humans tag you, you are marked for certain death."

"Death?" The light blue silverwing turned to Melody, and she couldn't tell if he was starting to have second thoughts about her or not. That put her in a slight panic.

"What? No!" Melody shook her head quickly. "That's not the purpose of the band at all!"

Shade's eyes softened at her with trust before turning back to Marina. "Are you sure, Marina? I know someone who-"

"No, you _don't_ know!" Marina snapped.

"Let me finish. I-"

"I don't want to talk about it!" The brightwing cried out angrily. With that, Marina tore herself away from the two silverwings and darted away.

"Marina!" Melody called after her. When the brightwing refused to turn back, she worriedly looked at Shade. "Now what?"

Shade frowned in thought then nudged her gently with his shoulder. "Come on." The two friends flew after Marina all the way towards the beach again. Marina headed over to where the orcas were swimming again. "What the-?" he questioned, as a whale blew water out of it's blow hole.

"Hey short stuff!" Marina called down to him with a grin. "You see those holes on top of their head? They breath through them."

"Marina, we need to talk!" Melody breathed out, trying to get her attention. The brightwing ignored her and swooped down closer to the whales, causing Melody to lag behind in order to keep her distance from them. Marina flew over a blowhole and laughed as a powerful burst of air parachuted her upwards.

Quite impressed by her stunt, Shade grinned. "Awesome! Oh- I am going to try that!"

"Huh?!" Melody stared at him like he was crazy.

"Sure you can handle it? It takes skill _and _timing." Marina told him.

"Well, if you can do it, it can't be that hard."

That earned a small glare from Marina.

Melody flew between the two bats. "Shade no! Orca's are Killer Whales! If you get too close, you might get hurt!" Or worse...

"I can handle myself." Shade dove down after an orca.

"Yeah...sure," the brunette grumbled. She worriedly watched as he hovered over the blowhole before a puff of air sent him back upwards. He laughed from the thrill and even managed to add in a few somersaults in the air. The small bat chuckled as he caught up with the girls.

"Yeah!" He smiled smugly at Marina.

"Not bad." The brightwing shrugged slightly, "but your form could do a little work." The two of them shared a playful grin before they both shot downwards again. "Get ready!" This time both Shade and Marina were twirling in the air, laughing and squealing from the fun. "Come on Melody! Don't be such a chickenwing!"

Melody was not amused. "No thanks. I choose life."

"Suit yourself."

The ex-human sighed and watched the two bats fool around. Shade even perched onto the dorsal fin of the orca and rode it like a surfboard. Maybe she was overthinking things. The whales barely paid much heed to the bats as they lazily swam along. Perhaps there wasn't much danger after all. That was...until a killer whale began to close in behind Marina with it's jaws wide open.

"_Marina! Behind you!"_ Melody shrieked.

Shade screamed out her name as well, but by the time Marina looked behind her, it was already too late. The only thing she could do was cry out in horror as the orca clamped its jaws over her and dove underwater.

Melody and Shade scanned the surface as they searched for the whale. In their panicked haste, they bumped into each other. "Ah!"

"Do you see it anywhere?"

"No." Shade shook his head and continued searching.

Melody was getting really scared. Was Marina dead?! One moment she was there and now she wasn't! It was terrifying how fast someone could just disappear like that. To her delight, she spotted a dark shadow rise closer to the surface of the water. "Shade! Over there!"

The blonde turned to where Melody pointed and they both gave chase after it. When the whale surfaced for air, Shade looked over to her. "They breath from the top of their heads right?"

"Yeah. But what does that have to do with-oh." She caught on as Shade flew down to the blowhole. He covered it with his furry small body, and clung his claws into the Orca's rubbery black skin.

"Let her go!"

The lack of air caught the orca's attention and it narrowed its eyes at Shade with annoyance. It began trying to shake him off by rolling from side to side, getting the small bat all wet. Suddenly the whale jumped into the air, intending to dive underwater to get the unwanted pest off.

"Hold on!" Melody called down to him, trying to keep up after them, her wings already starting to tire out. Soon the orca jumped back out again, and this time its movements were getting sluggish. "You got him, Shade!"

Indeed. The orca had enough and opened it's mouth to take in a breath of air. In that moment, Marina burst out of it's mouth, all covered in saliva.

"You did it!"

The killer whale huffed in agitation and used its newly intaken air to blow off Shade from its blowhole. He screamed as he shot up into the sky before he managed to regain his balance.

Marina flew up to him with a grateful smile. "I owe you."

Melody caught up to them, completely out of breath. "What...did I say? _Killer whales!_ Not...fun!"

* * *

After the whole orca fiasco, the three adolescent bats roosted below a totem pole. "You two saved my life!" Marina stared at Shade and Melody with bewilderment.

Melody grinned and gently elbowed Shade. "Nah. All the credit goes to this guy here. He's the one who threw all rationality out the window and rushed to the rescue."

"Ha, it was nothing." Shade looked rather embarrassed. However his expression turned serious as he addressed Marina. "Although…"

"Although what?" She tilted her head in curiousity.

Shade paused for a moment before continuing. "You didn't let me finish what I saying about the band."

"Oh...that."

"Frieda- our elder, has a band just like yours."

Surprise swept over the brightwing's face. "An elder? Banded?" A smile slowly began to grow as she looked at her own band. "Like me?"

"Well, maybe not _exactly_ like-"

"And she's old?" Marina cut him off, getting excited.

Shade chuckled, "Practically ancient." He flew onto the top of the totem ledge followed by Marina...and Melody decided it wasn't worth the effort and just hung beneath them.

"Then maybe the band doesn't mean certain death." Marina mused.

"That is what I was trying to tell you all." The girl down below called up to them.

"And that Orca didn't get you, did it?" Shade added.

Marina put her fingers to her chin in thought, looking very pleased with the idea that came to her. "Maybe it means I'm meant to be an elder too!"

"Elder Marina." The smaller bat chuckled, "I like the sound of that." He knelt over the edge to look down at the bat who hung below them. "What do you think, _Elder Melody_?" He asked teasingly.

"Oy! Do I look old to you?"

"When do we leave?!" Marina blurt out, looking happier than ever.

"Leave?" Shade raised an eyebrow at her.

Marina nodded, "Yeah! To join your colony so I can meet this Frieda!"

Every bit of enthusiasm left Shade in an instant and he turned his head away. "I-I can't. I can't face my colony. Not after losing Tree Haven."

Marina hopped over to him and placed her hands on his shoulders gently. "Come on Shade. Don't be so hard on yourself. At least your colony didn't banish you."

"No…" Shade looked down where Melody hung, "but they did banish Melody. I can't just leave her behind."

"..." The brightwing couldn't argue against that.

The light blue bat sighed, "I just wish you could have seen Tree Haven, Marina. It was the biggest hollow oak ever!" He gazed up at the large silvery moon as he told her about his home. "With the gnarliest roots and all kinds of chambers and roosts and…"

Melody snorted. "_Gnarly_." She blinked innocently as Shade glared down at her.

"Come on." Marina opened her wings and took off, smiling at the curious glances from her new friends. "I want to show you guys something."

They flew through the forest, not sure where Marina was taking them. "Where are we going?" The boy bat asked Marina.

"Just a little further." She sang.

"You said that ten minutes ago. Just how further is a little further?" Melody groaned.

"Like- right over there." The brightwing nodded her head toward the clearing. Right in front of them was a short, hollow, bare tree.

"Woah!" Shade gasped, not believing his eyes.

"So?" Marina grinned down at the two silverwings who were quickly cheering up. "What do you think? It's big, it's hollow it's gnarly-"

Melody snorted back another laugh. That word just tickled her.

They flew around the tree, inspecting it from all sides. Shade was particularly joyful as he explored inside it, slipping easily through the holes. "Wow!"

"This is amazing!" The brunette peered into one of the holes, it was filled with spacious chambers and everything that a bat would need to call home. "Shade, just think!" She exclaimed as he flew out of one of the holes. "This could be your new tree haven for your colony!"

"It's perfect!" Shade agreed with her wholeheartedly. "Alright!"

After calming down and roosting in a tree, Shade had changed his mind. "I've got to let the colony know about this! Looks like you'll get to meet Frieda after all."

"But Shade," Marina gently grabbed Melody's hand in her own. "What about Melody?"

"Huh?" Melody quickly retracted her hand and smiled. "Oh don't worry about me. The silverwings are headed south right? My home is in the south as well...that is…" Her carefree tone slowly dulled down. "Um...Florida is pretty far. I don't know how far hibernaculum is, but-" She shook her head, trying to pry away from the angsty thoughts, "What I mean to say is that my home is in the same direction. I'll help you find your colony on the way."

Shade nodded slowly, looking worried at first before lightening up with a soft smile. "Yeah. And when we reach hibernaculum, I'll help you get home too."

"You don't have to go that far-"

"It's a promise." The boy interrupted her and reached out his hand. "I promise I won't leave you behind until you are back home and human again."

How would he be able to keep that promise? She didn't even know if she'll manage to turn back! "But-"

"I _promise_." He insisted firmly, his blue eyes not straying away from hers, determined to show her how serious he was about this.

Melody hesitated for a moment but then she sighed and clasped her hand with his, shaking it. "Alright. I promise too. I will do everything in my power that you find your colony again."

"Great!" Marina cheered, "Then it's settled! We'll all head for the mainland." A hidden promise of her own lingering in her words. "Together."

"Uh...which way?" Shade asked.

Marina pointed with her clawed finger in the direction of the ocean, southward. The distance seemed to have no bounds.

Melody gulped. She had her work cut out of her.

* * *

**A/N**: Alright! That took me forever to write. The beginning of classes in college sure did not help much. I also have a confession to make. This wasn't my favorite chapter to write, nor was it my favorite episode either. The good news is that I managed to finish it! Now I can focus on the more exciting parts! Yay! I'm also taking a creative writing course this semester, so hopefully this will manage to polish my writing skills. I am currently learning about adding description in my writing, which is something I'm desperately trying to add in here. But with a show that has a lot of dialogue, it's easy to have a hard time adding that in. But I'm still learning and I plan on getting better.

**mchap1154: **Thanks! I loved writing that part with Shade glomping Melody. I hope you enjoyed this chapter more than I enjoyed writing it. xD

**QueenStorie: **I suppose you'll have to read and find out. (:P) But if you have any predictions about what will happen, you are more than welcome to tell me.

**RandomReader: **Yay! I'm glad you like it so far. :)

**Carlisle Fan 22: **Aww, shucks. You're making me blush! Heehee. I honestly wasn't sure how this story would turn out, but I'm glad that I seem to be going in the right direction. Thank you so much!

**Thank you everyone for reviewing, faving and following! I'll see you in chapter...uhh...hold on. 8! Wow! I'll see you all in chapter 8. Stay tuned! **


	8. Beginning of a Journey

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 8**: Beginning of a Journey

"I never thought I'd leave that island." Marina sighed happily as she flew contently, allowing the sea breeze gently brush her platinum hair back. "You _do_ remember what an island is, right Shade?" she asked teasingly. "Body of land, surrounded by water." The only answer she got was the sound of exhausted breathing behind her. She worriedly looked back to see Shade and Melody struggling to keep up. "Keep it up, you guys!" The brightwing encouraged, "You two are doing great!"

"By who's standards?" Melody grunted, feeling a cramp forming in her shoulders. While she did appreciate Marina trying to cheer them on, that did not lessen the burn that was gnawing away at her arms. She was at least grateful that her wings were large enough that she did not have to overexert herself as much as Shade, who happened to be beating his wings twice as fast.

"Human standards, I suppose."

The girl rolled her eyes, "thanks. You alright there, Shade?"

The smaller bat gave a strained smile. "Don't worry about me. I'm... uh- enjoying this."

"Is that so?" A mischievous glint shimmered in her hazel eyes before Melody swooped down and deliberately clung onto Shade's back. "Then you won't mind if I let you carry me the rest of the way? I could use the break."

The light blue bat faltered in the air the moment the unwanted weight landed on top of him. His wing flapping increased in speed just to keep afloat in the air. "Hey! Melody- get off!"

"But I thought you were enjoying this." Melody pursed her lips in a pout.

"Well, now I'm not!" Shade huffed, irritated.

"Aww, you're no fun," she let go of him anyway. Melody countered his glare with a sweet smile.

Marina called back to them, "quit fooling around, guys! Hurry it up or it will soon be sunrise." She shook her head at their childish antics.

"Thanks for the update." Shade muttered.

They kept flying like that for some time until they heard obnoxious laughter come from above. Melody peered upwards to see a seagull appearing from the gray clouds until it hovered above them, looking greatly amused. Melody inwardly groaned, she was not a fan of gulls ever since they stole her french fries at the beach.

Shade seemed to share her sentiment. "What's so funny?" he demanded angrily.

The bird chuckled, "you guys are working _way _too hard." It gave one last loud laugh before soaring upwards until it disappeared into the clouds again.

Curious, Marina used her echolocation to see through the clouds. Soon after she darted upwards after the seagull. A few moments later, her voice shouted down to the tired bats. "Hey Shade! Melody! Up here!"

Giving each other a confused look, Melody and Shade penetrated through the clouds, momentarily surrounded by fog. Once in the clearing again, Melody spotted three seagulls playfully gliding around the brightwing while cackling.

Catching up to Marina, the male silverwing asked, "you brought us here to watch feeble bird tricks?"

"No. Just hold your wings out." Marina explained.

Quickly understanding what her friend was implying, Melody allowed the wind carry her instead as she spread out her wings and held them like that. Her muscles relaxed tremendously, and she sighed with contentment. Shade on the other wing, did not get it the first time, falling the moment he tried to do it too.

He quickly caught himself before flying back to the girls and trying again. Shade was tremendously pleased with the results. "Oh wow!" He chuckled at Marina's discovery, "this is so much easier!"

"I know, right?" Melody giggled, "I always wondered what hang gliding would be like." She smiled over at Marina, "You are a life saver."

"Yeah, it was pretty clever of me." Marina grinned. She twirled around in the air, showing off a bit.

"Wanna race?" Shade excitedly challenged his friends.

Marina accepted it in a heartbeat, "you're on!"

Melody lined herself up with Shade and Marina, wearing her own smug grin. "Bring it."

"Okay!" Shade began counting off, "one...two-"

"_Three!"_ Melody sped off ahead while laughing her head off.

"Hey!" the brightwing exclaimed.

"No fair!" Shade sped after Melody, followed by Marina.

"You snooze, you lose." Melody said in a singsong voice. She had never felt so free before, soaring above the ocean with nothing holding her back. She felt so weightless. Her peaceful thoughts were interrupted the moment when Marina zoomed past her. "Whoa!"

Marina stuck her tongue out and laughed at Melody's dumbstruck face.

"Oh no you don't." Melody quit gliding and flapped her silver wings in order to catch up after Marina.

Shade called after her, "that's cheating!" before using his wings to speed up so he wasn't behind the girls anymore.

"Cheating? You never laid out the rules." The brunette giggled, rather proud of herself for slipping through a loophole in the game. The three friends raced each other, having the time of their lives until they finally decided that they were starting to tire out. The young bats glided the rest of the way up to the point when Melody could see a large city form in the distance. "Look! We are almost there."

Marina nodded, "about time too. The sun is coming up." That was indeed true. The sky was becoming golden from the rays of the sun, just peeking behind the skyscrapers.

Shade scanned around, looking for something until his eyes spotted what he was searching for. "There's a cave right over there." He pointed over to a cliffside over the ocean where a dark crevice was indented into it. "Let's spend the day there until the sun goes down."

The other two agreed to this plan and let him lead the way.

Unfortunately, Melody had no idea what horrific nightmares awaited her and her friends in the city.

* * *

That very moment, sitting on top of the ledge of the very same science lab building where Elliot resided in, two fat, city pigeons chatted away with each other, laughing over the sounds of the passing cars below them while they awaited the sunrise.

"So the next thing you know, _blamo! _He's flown right into the other bird again!" The larger gray pigeon chuckled, in the middle of his anecdote.

Neither of the two birds noticed that a pair of glowing green eyes watched them carnivorously from within the air shaft behind them. Another dark creature crept up next to him and reached out and grabbed the spinning fan that blocked the exit out of the air shaft, and with amazing strength, stopped it in mid rotation with a metallic screech. This allowed his larger companion to quickly slip out and sneak up behind the unsuspecting pigeons without a sound.

"And then it hits me," the pigeon continued after catching his breath from laughing so hard. "I says, _it's a mirror!_ Oh boy, did he feel stu-" His attention to his own story all but ended the moment he saw a demonic shadow approaching from the back corner of his eye, "_gah!" _a sharp gasp escaped him and his yellow eyes widened in terror.

His friend blinked, not knowing what caused the bigger pigeon to freeze up until it was far too late. He only had time to cry out in surprise the moment the shadow enveloped him and he was ensnared in the wings of the monstrous bat. His shrill screams dimmed to pathetic whimpers as the creature savagely bit into his throat with his merciless jaws.

The shivering gray pigeon shakily covered the long cut on the side of his neck that was caught on the claw of the beast during the attack on his friend. He was frozen in fear and could only watch as the dying bird feebly struggled against the bat before finally submitting as it suffocated in it's own blood. The bat chuckled darkly, delighted to feel the breathing cease beneath his sharp teeth before starting to devour him. To the pigeon's horror, a second large bat came out of the air shaft. His eyes made contact with him, and all it took was to see the bat smirk at him, to finally come to his senses and fly away while screaming at the top of his lungs.

* * *

"They are gone!"

"Huh? What?" Elliot jolted awake, barely able to comprehend that he was not at home. He had fallen asleep on the metal desk from pulling an all nighter working on the antidote. The scientist looked around blurrily until he realized that his glasses had fallen off while he was asleep. His hand prodded around on the table until he found them and put them on. It was 8am, around the time when the lab opened up again. Elliot saw a red-haired woman in a lab coat come out of the jungle room, looking very distressed.

"The bats are gone!"

"Say what now?" Elliot stood up, pulling the chair back while scratching his head. "Gone? How can they be gone? Didn't you lock the door when you left the room yesterday?" The raven-haired man mentally slapped himself for saying something so stupid. As if bats are able to open doors anyway.

The other scientist didn't notice. "Yes! I remember specifically locking the door when my shift was done for the night. I don't understand this at all." The woman sighed and shook her head in dismay, "I am so going to lose my job for this…"

Now, while Elliot was never a people person, he still felt a nagging feeling that poked him in the back of his spine that told him that he should try and help, and it only increased. Wait- no. That was DD stabbing him in the back with a pencil. "_Jesus!_ DD, that bloody hurts!" The young man swiped away the pencil from the penguin's flippers while angrily glaring at him. "What was that for?"

DD just innocently blinked up at him before cheerfully saying, "_Morning!"_

"..."

"..."

Elliot felt a vein throb at his temple as he forced a smile on his face. He knew what was going on, and it wasn't the usual hardwired moral behavior that DD had developed. This pesky robot was trying to get back at him for leaving him behind in the first place. "_Good. Morning."_ He squeezed out from behind his teeth before turning back to the confused woman. "Ignore that." He stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked over to her. "If you locked the door, then the bats had to have escaped another way. Let's go inside." He opened the door and was about to walk in when she stopped him by grabbing his arm.

"Wait! You can't go in there unless you are authorized-" She trailed off, quickly becoming intimidated by his dark stare.

"I think I'm the least of your worries right now," he said before his eyes trailed down to her name tag, "Rosa." He brushed her hand off and walked into the room followed by her. He pushed through the large green leaves and was careful not to trip over any of the large tree roots that entangled the ground like tick vines. He stopped when he noticed something silver lying on the ground near a wall. Walking over to it, he picked it up and deduced quickly that it was an air vent. His eyes rose up to see a gaping hole in the wall near the ceiling and he handed the metal vent over to Rosa, "looks like you won't get fired after all."

She gasped as she too saw the hole. "Oh no...if those bats got out-"

"You are probably not going to get them back," he finished for her. "Better hope that they won't turn into an invasive species." He caught the horrified expression on her face and he rolled his eyes. "I was kidding. Calm down, spectral bats aren't made to live in cold climates. The most they'll probably do is fly south and terrorize any small animal that gets in their way." He paused and replayed what he just said in his head. Immediately the thought of Melody and his face paled. "I think...I'd better go back to work on my project." He said faintly and quietly walked out of the false jungle. He needed to create a mixture to turn her into a human and fast.

* * *

"Melody- hey Melody, wake up," a gentle voice coaxed the girl awake.

Melody gave a soft moan and opened her hazel eyes to see Marina smiling back at her as they hung upside down in the cave. "Marina?" she asked sleepily, "is it nighttime already?"

"Yeah, the sun has set not too long ago. We better get a move on."

The female silverwing yawned and stretched her wings out, feeling her shoulders crack a bit. "Alright, I'm up," she sighed and looked over at Marina again, "where is Shade?"

The brightwing grinned and pointed behind Melody who had to twist around to see Shade close behind her, still fast asleep.

Melody giggled, "aww, look at that. Isn't he just adorable?"

"Yeah, if only he was like that when he's awake," Marina joked before flying down to a rock beneath Shade. "Hey, Shade," she called out to him. He didn't do much to respond besides muttering something in his sleep and wrapping his wings tighter around himself.

Melody tried to help Marina out and tapped him with her claw, "yoohoo, wakey wakey," but there was no reaction.

Getting an idea, Marina smiled deviously and roughly shoved him, giving him a somewhat rude wake up call as he swung back and forth.

"_Gah!_ Hey!" Shade protested and finally opened his blue eyes, and glared at Melody who happened to be right in front of him. "What did you do that for?"

"Do what?" She asked innocently.

Shade blinked, quickly concluding that Melody didn't do anything and glared back at Marina, while Melody tried to hold back her laughter while his head was turned.

Marina feigned innocence as well and shrugged, "Don't look at me, you startled yourself awake."

Shade easily bought that too and stretched his wings. "Ok. I'm up."

Marina winked at Melody who stifled her giggles behind her wing. It amused her of how trusting Shade was at times. Marina moved next to Shade once he landed down on a rock as well. "Well, call up your sound map and check your colony's migration route."

The light blue bat looked unsure and averted his eyes, "I've never actually called up the sound map."

The brightwing laughed, thinking that he was joking. "Yeah right. Quit playing games." Her smile faltered when Shade stayed silent. "You're not kidding...are you?"

Shade nodded slightly.

"Holy sunlight, Shade!" Marina exclaimed with frustration and hopped over to him, "now you tell me this?"

"It never came up before!" Shade defended.

Marina facepalmed and looked up at Melody who still roosted upside down. "I don't suppose you have a sound map?"

The brunette shook her head, looking none too happy with herself. "Sorry. I'm kind of useless in this situation."

Marina groaned but turned to Shade anyway. "Fine. Let's try this then. Close your eyes and try to remember what your mother sang to you."

Shade did as she instructed and tried to focus on the sound map. Melody watched worriedly as Shade began to struggle. He clutched at his head and seemed to grow confused. Soon he opened his eyes and staggered backwards with a cry. "Woah…" he shook his head, trying to regain his composure. "Overload. I can't process it all. How about we just use your sound map?" He suggested.

"Genius idea Shade." Marina rolled her eyes, nearly oozing with sarcasm, "if we were trying to find _my_ colony."

Melody saw Shade start to get depressed and quickly spoke up. "Come on Shade, you can do it." She scooted closer over to the two bats. "Try again. What if you just look at the first part for now? It's not like we need to know the whole thing all at once."

The silverwing sighed and nodded reluctantly before closing his eyes and trying again. "I see a human city nearby," he said after a moment of concentration.

"We'll start there." Marina broke his train of thought and took off, exiting the cave.

"Hey!" Shade protested, not too happy that he was interrupted before he could say more. He looked over to Melody who shrugged before flying over to him.

"Let's go, we are pretty close to the city."

"Yeah- ok," Shade said with a smile and with Melody, he quickly left the cave to follow after Marina. He felt himself grow more excited. He was certain that he would find his colony there. Once he was reunited with his mother, Marina would most likely be accepted into his colony. As for Melody, he planned to talk to Frieda again. Surely she would at least allow Melody to fly with them on their way to hibernaculum.

* * *

Meanwhile, the colony of silverwings migrated over to the city, unknowingly behind the adolescent bats. Ariel kept searching for her son as she flew with the others, just hoping for a sign that he was still alive. No. She _knew _that he was still alive, he had to be. Shade was a lot like his father, and that was good enough argument that kept her believing in him.

Frieda noticed that Ariel was still desperately looking for Shade, and sadly shook her head, feeling remorse for the mother.

Ariel looked over to Mercury who was helping her scan around for her son. "Any sign of Shade?"

"I'm sorry, Ariel," the messenger bat replied softly, "nothing." before flying ahead.

Bathsheba noticed Ariel's distraction and immediately tried to rid her of any meaningless hopes that she carried with her. "For your own good, you should forget about your boy. There is no way he survived that storm," she said nastily.

"You're wrong." Ariel was not one to be swayed by the elder's sharp tongue. "He's still out there. I can feel it." For some strange reason, she was almost certain that Melody was with her son. The idea gave her great comfort. She knew that those two could overcome anything as long as they were together.

The old bat was not moved one bit. "A mother's faith. Touching, but foolish."

Frieda intervened between Ariel and Bathsheba before the old bat could say anything more to aggravate her. "We must continue on to the cathedral where we can wait one more night together," she stated to Ariel's relief and Bathsheba's annoyance.

"As an elder, you'll have to think about what's best for the _entire_ colony," the shorter elder bared her teeth at Frieda, once again challenging the elder's judgement.

"We are well ahead of schedule," Frieda calmly replied before giving a secret smile to Ariel. "We can afford some extra time in the city."

"_Fine!"_ Bathsheba spat. "But if he doesn't show by then, we move on." Without another word, the ill tempered elder flew ahead.

"Thank you, Frieda." Ariel smiled gratefully.

"I think your faith in Shade is well place," Frieda began before her tone held a warning tone, "but Ariel, a word of caution. Watch what you say to Bathsheba."

Ariel nodded grimly.

* * *

Melody, Shade and Marina were awestruck by the entire city. Actually, it was really only Shade and Marina. Melody lived her entire life in a city similar to this one. The bright lights encased the entire city in a golden glow, and the busy streets were aligned with cars speeding back and forth down below. Sirens and honking noises were a huge contrast to a serene forest. Melody never paid it much mind before, but now- the noises were starting to get on her nerves. She wasn't sure whether or not if it was because her hearing was heightened as a bat, or if it was because she got comfortable with the gentle quietness of the nature. Probably both.

Flying past one of the tall buildings, Melody finally managed to look at herself for the very first time as a bat in the windows. She still looked like herself- but as a bat. In fact, she was rather pretty as a bat. "So that's what I look like," she mused to herself. "Not too shabby."

Shade made faces at himself in the windows as he flew past, greatly enjoying himself. "This is so cool!" He turned to look at Melody with a large smile, "is this what your world is like?"

"Yeah, though I personally don't think it's that impressive," Melody stated, "it's too crowded."

"I think it's amazing." Shade kept looking around, almost getting dizzy from so much going around him.

"Yeah, it is pretty amazing, but we need to stay focused and find your tower." Marina insisted.

Shade focused and tried to find the very same tower that he had seen in his sound map. His face brightened up when he saw one that looked like it. "There's one over there!"

They flew up to a clock tower that read about 9:58 and landed onto the wooden barred window at the very top. Marina sighed happily, "finally."

"Tell me about it," the brunette sat down on one of the wooden bars between Shade and Marina, more than happy to take a rest. "I was about to think that my wings were going to fall off."

However, Shade did not relax as fast as the girls did. In fact, he looked rather uncertain as he examined the tower. "Um, Melody? Marina? I'm not sure that this is the same tower on the sound map."

"Sure it is," the brightwing raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well- it doesn't have a cross."

"A cross?" Melody looked up to the top tip of the tower which was completely bare. "You mean we need to find a cathedral? Why didn't you mention a cross before?" She glared over at the silverwing. "It would have saved us so much time."

"It slipped my mind." Shade replied sheepishly.

Marina looked around as she clung to the wooden bars. "Well, did either of you see any other tower on your little sight seeing tour?"

"No, but I-"

"Ok, then what else could it be?" Marina interrupted Shade, obviously not in the mood to go for another tower search.

Melody looked back and forth between the two bats before answering cheekily, "not a cathedral?"

Their debate on whether this was the right tower or not got disrupted when the clock struck 10 o'clock, letting out an ear splitting _BONG! _The loud noise stunned the three bats, forcing them to plug up their ears while yelling in pain. The whole tower shook from the vibration, causing Melody and everyone else to lose their balance and topple off the building. They fell like autumn leaves before regaining their senses and catching themselves in midair.

"That proves it!" Marina said loudly as she flew back to the tower, "you said that you heard a loud _bong_."

"This isn't it." Shade insisted and landed on the wooden beam again, right where the wood was broken, allowing him to stand upright between the beams.

"I have to agree with Shade." Melody landed between them again, trying to massage the ringing out of her poor ears. "I doubt that a bat colony would be able to roost here with a clock tower that chimes every hour. I don't think my ears can take another round."

"Then _where is it?_" Marina groaned, coming to the end of her patience. "Honestly you two! I feel like I'm doing everything."

Melody scoffed, "excuse me? You are not doing much by brushing off the important details."

"Well maybe I wouldn't have if _Shade _hadn't wasted our time and told us about the cross sooner." Marina glared at the boy bat whose fur began to stand up on end.

"Oh, so it's all my fault?" He snapped angrily.

"_Yes!"_ Marina and Melody shouted at the same time.

"Hey! It was my sound map! That just-"

"Stinks!" the brightwing finished, wrinkling her nose.

Shade was completely insulted by that remark. "That's _not _what I was going to say!"

"No-...something seriously smells really bad," Melody covered her nose with her wing as Marina sniffed around, trying to figure out what the heck it was.

Shade paused before giving a slight sniff and cringing back, "ugh! Pee-yoo! You're right! It smells...foul."

Melody had no idea on whether he meant 'foul' as in disgusting or 'fowl' as in a bird. Either way, both cases were correct considering that the whole place was reeking of birds' droppings. Her suspicions were only confirmed the moment she and her friends were suddenly grabbed from behind by giant feathery wings. The young bats gave a shriek as they were pulled into the tower.

* * *

**A/N: **First off, I would like to address something. My fanfiction _is_ rated T. That means that yes, there will be possibilities of me using cuss words once in a while and some violent imagery. T means teens and older, and therefore, my story isn't exactly child friendly. I don't think that my fic is bad enough that it will have to upgraded to an M rating, because trust me. There are countless T rated fics that deal with language and subjects _far_ worse than mine. So I am sorry, but I will not be able to stop using bad words when the situation calls for it (like the rare case in chapter 4). I hope you all understand and I am sorry if something might end up offending you in this story. I'll probably make a disclaimer warning about language and stuff in the first chapter- but...a T rating should give you the hint.

Okie dokie! Now onto the brighter stuff.

**Carlisle Fan 22: **I can't wait to start writing about Zephyr, Goth and Throbb either! Honestly, when those characters come up- the story just ends up being that much more exciting. :)

**Queenstorie: **Lol! Melody totally would try to get away from him. Sadistic cannibal bats aren't exactly on her list of potential boyfriends. That is- if she even has a list. Now that I think about it, she probably never even thought upon the subject. xD She's such a tomboy. Great news though, we will be seeing Goth and Throbb very soon. :) How things will go down will be revealed in the future.

**mchap1154: **Oh look at that. I updated again. Yay! Thanks for reviewing. :D

Once again, thank you everyone for reviewing and reading up until this point. Chapter 9 will be out - uhhh...no idea when, probably in a week or two. I'll see you guys later!


	9. Disorder in the Court

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 9**: Disorder in the Court

"Ow!" Melody cried out as she was roughly shoved to the ground on her back, her head smacking against the wood. Bright spots danced around in her vision, and she was only brought out of her stupor when sharp talons pinned her wings to the floor. Wincing from the pain, the girl looked up to see a rather pissed off city pigeon glaring down at her with yellow eyes. Above them, hundreds more were cooing angrily as they roosted below the tower's ceiling. Rather intimidated by the judging eyes, Melody quickly searched for Shade and Marina, only to see that they were in the same predicament as her. She wondered if their yelling outside had irritated the birds.

"Pigeons!" Marina exclaimed.

"Is that what they are?" Melody gave a nervous chuckle. Sarcasm- she wondered if it did anything to hide the fact that she was indeed scared out of her mind right now. Probably not.

"What are we going to do?" Shade asked fearfully, his eyes darting to the girls.

"I- ugh!" Marina cringed from the pain as her captor laid down more weight on her wing, "I don't know!"

"Umm, apologize?" the brunette suggested, her voice cracking.

The other silverwing looked at her incredulously, "for what?"

"_I don't know_, why don't you ask them? Maybe your yelling woke them up," she hissed from behind her teeth, still a bit riled up from their previous argument.

Shade was taken aback before glaring at Melody, "_my_ yelling? You two were just loud as I was!"

"Guys! This isn't the time or place!" the annoyed voice came from the brightwing.

"_Silence!"_ The pigeon holding Shade squawked angrily. The bats immediately quieted down, though they continued to shoot small glares at each other.

Suddenly, the pigeon picked her by the scruff of her brown mane in his beak and moved her over to her friends. He dropped her onto her stomach, knocking the wind out of her, and stood right on top of her wings. Melody noticed that she was lined up with Marina and Shade on both sides of her.

Shade struggled against the pigeon who was holding him down, but he was completely immobilized. Marina stayed completely still as did Melody. The female silverwing was scared of tearing her wings against the sharp talons of her captor.

The bird that held Shade down spoke, "captain, here are the renegades who Hegland saw kill our friend!"

_Kill? _Melody was completely at loss on what was going on. The looks on her friends' faces told her that they were just as confused as she was. Well, whatever it was- Melody did not like where this was going. This was turning into something more serious than just intruding on a flock's territory.

The leader of the pigeons flew down to them. He stared at them coldly before shutting up the rest of the jury with a loud "silence! Give me more light." The room was lit up by the city lights as one pigeon removed a sheet of paper off the gaping hole in the boarding. His shadow loomed over the young bats as he inched closer. The pigeon captain tilted his head as he examined them. He pulled at Shade's blond hair with his beak, causing the boy to cry out. He quickly moved over to Marina and smacked her face with his wing, curious to see their reactions.

The pigeon then turned his attention to Melody and bit at her ear and sharply pulled at it.

"Ouch!" Melody screeched, "quit it!"

"Leave them alone!" Shade snapped angrily at him.

The pigeon paid little heed to Shade's words and turned away to call another pigeon, "Hegland. Come forward."

A wounded pigeon grudgingly approached with his head lowered, avoiding his comrades gazes. Melody noticed that he had a fresh cut that ran down the side of his neck, void of any feathers. His eyes only raised to study the bats in front of him. Looking from Marina to Melody to Shade, he shook his head and stammered, "uh...these aren't the ones. I-I-I told you, they were huge! And there were two of them, not three."

"Are you sure?" The captain paused before rolling his eyes, "tch- what am I saying? You're never sure."

Hegland began prancing around nervously, "oh- what if the giant bats come back? Their wings were-"

"Enough!" The captain snapped, causing the poor bird to lower his head and stare up at him with sad eyes. Melody even felt a tinge of pity for the wounded pigeon. He was scared out of his wits, and yet the captain wasn't taking him seriously at all. What kind of justice system was this?

* * *

Meanwhile, the silverwing colony had made it to the city.

"We are almost at the cathedral." Frieda told Ariel.

Mercury who was flying above the females and pups, scanned the surroundings for any signs of danger. His eyes then widened and he commanded, "dive! Take cover!"

Without hesitation, the colony quickly dove down and hid under the rooftop of a nearby building. A group of owls flew past their hiding place towards a clock tower, not seeing them.

"What was that about?" Mercury asked.

"I can't imagine. I thought the score was settled with the owls when they burnt down Tree Haven." Frieda answered with a concerned expression on her face.

Bathsheba smartly gave her own opinion, "I guess they didn't consider that punishment enough."

"Owls in the city are uncommon and those owls were in battle formation. That's never a good sign," the elder said.

* * *

Back at the clock tower, the interrogation continued.

The captain pigeon approached Marina, "what about it, brightwing? You look like the smart one."

Marina kept silent, glaring defiantly at the bird.

The captain nodded at her captor who took the cue and tightened his hold on her wings, causing the blonde girl to groan from the torture.

"Hey featherhead! Leave her alone!" Shade yelled angrily.

The captain was about to smash the boy's head with his foot when to Melody's relief, another pigeon interrupted.

"He's arrived, sir."

The captain lowered his foot back down and turned to look at the other side of the room and gave a salute.

With everyone having their attention directed to that one direction, Melody also turned her head. Immediately she wished she hadn't and her heart leaped into her throat. Standing there before them all was a great horned owl. He was even larger than the owl that had tried to kill her and Shade when they stayed up to see the sun. His large, glowing yellow eyes averted away from the pigeon captain and down to them. They seemed to linger on Shade, who stared back up at him in terror. The owl stomped over to the bats, his form becoming more massive the closer he approached. Melody shrank back as far as she was allowed, which wasn't far as she would have liked.

"_You." _The owl breathed down at Shade.

Melody's eyes darted back and forth between Shade and the owl. What was going on? How did this owl know Shade? Was he the one responsible for the burning down of Tree Haven? Was he going to eat them? Her thoughts were racing fifty miles per second.

Shade stuttered,"B-B-Brutus!"

"Wasn't breaking the law enough for you, bat? You and your colony have now graduated to _murder_?"

"Murder?! My colony would never murder!" Whatever trace of fear that was on Shade's face vanished and was replaced with disgust.

"So, you admit that it was just you and your friends here."

"We didn't do anything!" Marina exclaimed.

The pigeon captain spoke up, "my sentry described them as giant bats, unlike these three."

The great horned owl shook his head disbelievingly as he straightened up and started pacing back and forth. "Preposterous! The silverwings are obviously killing innocent pigeons as retribution for our burning of Tree Haven."

"That's insane! No bat can kill a pigeon." Shade rebutted.

'_Shade! Utshay youryay aptray!' _Melody mouthed at him. Her efforts were wasted as Shade gave her a confused look and she mentally kicked herself. It wasn't like he would know what the heck Pig Latin was!

"No _one_ bat perhaps," Brutus agreed, "but an ambush by the whole colony! Besides, I've heard tales of cornered bats and the wiles they imploy. A bat scorned will stop at nothing."

That just made Shade more furious, "that's the stupidest thing I have ever heard!"

"Shade! Shut up!" Marina hissed.

_'Yes! Thank you, Marina!' _Melody mentally praised her.

"If I were you, I'd listen to your wise little friend here." Brutus warned the silverwing with a dangerous tone and his eyes turned to the dark blue bat, "and perhaps learn how to read pig lip."

Melody's eyes widened. _'Wait...how the hell does this guy know Pig Latin?!' _She flinched as the great horned owl leaned over her. She saw him eyeing the silver band on her wrist and a devious smirk curled his beak, causing her blood to grow cold.

"So, _you _are the runt's accomplice."

Melody gave a hard swallow before asking timidly, "accomplice...sir?"

"Do not act innocent with me, girl." Brutus growled, "you have been found outside during daylight hours along with him. You are guilty of breaking one of our most ancient laws."

"In my defense, sir- the law has nothing to do with me."

The owl quirked an eyebrow, "oh? Indulge me."

"I-..." Melody glanced at Shade, but his worried expression didn't really help much. She turned back to look at General Brutus in the eyes. "I am actually a human being." There was a long silence until the owl gave a booming laugh. The pigeons joined in, some almost bending over from laughing so hard. Melody felt her face flush, though thankfully the fur hid her reddening skin. So much for that ridiculous attempt.

When the owl stopped laughing, he sneered down at her, "if you wish to lie to me, you should at least come up with a clever story."

"I'm not lying." Melody mumbled, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed.

Brutus ignored her and turned back to Shade and asked, "where is your colony?" Shade stayed quiet and the owl's temper waned. "Tell me where your colony is! Now!" he bellowed.

"I don't know," the boy answered truthfully. Again, the truth seemed to go through one ear and out the other as the general clearly didn't listen.

He finally turned his attention to Marina, "why is a brightwing in league with these criminals?"

Marina looked over to Melody and Shade with uncertainty.

"Answer the general's question!" her captor commanded, not giving her time to think of an answer.

"They are not criminals!" Marina replied in defense, also getting rather irritated with the fact that this owl was brushing off each and every one of their answers.

General Brutus shook his head as if he was wasting his time with them. "Bats. Your ancestors couldn't see who to side with and neither can you. You creatures make me sick."

"Yeah? Well you are a biased prick!" Melody had no idea why she said what she did. She knew that she had a death warrant on her head. Shade was lucky enough to have his punishment lightened up to just having his home burnt down. If that wasn't enough, now they were being convicted of murder. There was no way that she was leaving this tower alive. Now that she thought about it, maybe that was the reason why she was letting it all out. She really had nothing more to lose. She ignored the horrified stares that Marina and Shade sent her way. If she was going to die anyway, she might as well let the stupid owl know what she thought of him. "You refuse to listen to the truth when it is being thrown at you! What kind of general are you?! Whoever made up that law about the sun is a dolt. Silverwings are peaceful creatures who live in the shadows in fear of you! They would never stoop so low as to murder a pigeon when they clearly know the consequences for their actions!"

"Melody!" Shade gasped out, his eyes filled with fear for her.

Unexpectedly, Brutus grinned darkly. His shadow loomed over her like a black curtain of death. "Such brave last words. I can respect that in a bat"

Melody didn't cower, glaring defiantly at the owl.

Brutus turned his back on her and addressed the lead pigeon, "captain, post sentry all over the city."

"It's already been done, General."

"Fine." Brutus nodded, "capture and arrest all silverwings!"

"_No!"_ Shade yelled, trying to get up- forgetting momentarily that he was pinned down by one of the pigeons.

"I'll alert the owls in the Northern Forest." General Brutus heavily walked towards the exit before pausing for a moment and turning back. "Oh and Captain, torture the runt and the brightwing until they reveal the colony's whereabouts," he said with a deceptive pleasant tone.

"Sir, what about the female silverwing?" The captain inquired.

Melody froze as Brutus's piercing yellow eyes penetrated hers.

"Execute her."

* * *

The silverwing colony made their way towards the cathedral where they had planned to rest before they moved on. However, Frieda noticed something was amiss and let out her echolocation to see what it was. The image that was sent back to her showed a trio of pigeons, guarding the landmark. "I do not like this," she said quietly to Ariel and Bathsheba. "We should skip this landmark and move on to the next one."

"Don't be so dramatic Frieda. It's just some pigeons. So what?" Bathsheba questioned, not seeing the problem.

"First owls in battle formation, now pigeons on guard duty at night. Something is wrong."

"You _are _the leader," Bathsheba replied. "We will carry on, but I still disagree!" Putting on a sour face, the old bat joined the other elders somewhere behind them.

Noticing Ariel's worried expression, Frieda calmly soothed her, "don't worry Ariel. I promise we will stop and wait for Shade later. But for now, we must fly on."

Sadly, Ariel took one last gaze at the cathedral before continuing on with the rest of the colony.

Unbeknownst to them, a pair of murderous bats watched as the silverwings flew past as they feasted on another bird that they have just caught. The taller one placed a claw to his chin in thought and smirked as a malicious idea formed.

* * *

Melody waited for it to all be over. She couldn't bare to look up and see the pigeons sharpening their beaks on metallic stubs that were indented into the wooden poles. She didn't want to die, but here she was- waiting for her own public execution. They were going to tear her apart, and she had no doubt that her death wasn't going to be quick. Tears welling up, she shut her eyes and tried to drown everything out.

Marina whispered fearfully, "what do we do Shade?"

"Get out of here as fast possible," he answered with determination before looking at Melody who had her face turned away from him. "Melody, you are _not_ going to die here."

"How would you know?" Melody croaked, trying her best not to cry.

"Because I made you a promise and I never go back on my word."

She shifted a little beneath her guard's talons and tearfully looked at her friend, earning an encouraging smile from him. She softly smiled back before looking towards the other end of the room. Her eyes widened as realization suddenly set in. "D'oh!" She smacked her face against the floor. "I'm so stupid."

"What is it?" Marina asked quietly, concerned as to why Melody hit herself.

"Pigeons can't see in the dark." Melody nudged her head in the direction of the hole in the floor that one pigeon had uncovered earlier, lighting up the room with the city lights.

Shade looked over to the hole and grinned. He nodded to Melody, showing that he understood what she had in mind. While his captor was too busy sharpening his beak to notice what was going on below his feet- the silverwing took the risky opportunity to slip out of the bird's slackened foot. As he managed to escape from under the bird, his wing accidentally got caught in it's sharp talon and practically tore in half. He cried out but did not stop in his tracks. As fast as he could, Shade flew over to the sheet of paper and covered the hole up once again, blocking all the light.

Immediately, all the pigeons went into panic mode.

"What's going on?!"

"I can't see!"

"Don't let the prisoners escape!"

In their confusion, the birds began bumping into each other while squawking, causing a disarray in the room.

Seeing her only opportunity, Melody bit her captor's foot as hard as she could, causing the bird to screech and release her. She rushed out of reach and tried to join Shade and Marina (who managed to escape her guard as well) when the grim fact replayed in her head. She was grounded. Melody cursed her predicament and tried to get off the floor anyway, while trying not to get trampled by the furious blinded birds.

Shade and Marina dodged past the pigeons as they flew upwards, too adrenaline filled to look back. In the confusion, Shade flew into a bird once but luckily made it out of the tower with Marina. Breathing hard, the two young bats smiled at each other, silently congratulating each other for making it out alive. The moment was short live though.

"Wait- where is Melody?" Shade asked when he noticed that they were one bat short.

Marina blinked and searched around, "she was right behind me when I last checked…" she trailed off and both of them looked at each other in horror and then back down at the tower. A scream resonated from within.

* * *

Melody climbed up a wooden pole as silently and as quickly as she could, trying not to attract attention from the confused pigeons. '_You can do this, Melody. You just have to climb high enough so you can take off properly.' _The girl winced as a bird flew past, slightly brushing her ear with it's wing. Gulping, she continued to climb until she reached a horizontal beam. Pulling herself onto it, she took a deep breath and jumped off. She spread out her wings and caught the air beneath them and attempted to fly up.

It was no easy task as she nearly rammed into a pigeon who quickly noticed her presence and tried to block her way out and peck at her. She screamed as it's beak plunged at her and she narrowly dodged the fatal blow. The bird tried to grab her with it's talons, and Melody clumsily backed up- easily getting cornered. "Shade! Marina! _Ahh!_" She bumped into another pigeon from behind and it angrily pecked at her. She was trapped!

Out of nowhere, Shade smacked into the bird's back, knocking it out of the air while Marina slammed into the second one, freeing Melody.

"Go! Go!" Marina yelled at her and pushed her in the right direction. The girls flew towards the exit while Shade had their back. The boy panted and winced as his wing hurt every time he moved it. Distracted by the pain, he flew into a wall before he could pull up and grunted as he landed on a beam. Marina noticed and flew back down to him, helping him up. "You ok?"

"Just...fly!" Shade groaned and the two of them flew after Melody and escaped from the tower. The three of them did not dare slow down in fear of being caught again.

Melody noticed the long gash in Shade's wing and gasped. "Shade! You're hurt!"

"Don't worry about me," he told her.

"Do you want to stop?" Marina asked, equally concerned. "Rest your wing?"

Shade faltered in the air for a moment as the pain increased, but he kept on going. He grimaced bitterly before spitting out, "pigeons. I hate them all almost as much as I hate those _stupid _owls!"

"Shade, revenge isn't worth it. We have to warn your colony!" Marina insisted, "we've gotta find that cross."

With a stroke of luck, a chime rang out in the distance, catching the attention of the three friends. Melody saw a cathedral come into view and let out a big smile. "Oh my gosh! Shade! There it is! It's the cathedral that you described!"

"That's where they were meant to stop." Shade breathed out and forced himself to go on.

Nearing the landmark, Marina suddenly noticed the pigeons that were guarding the cathedral and gasped. She swiftly swooped down and grabbed Shade by the shoulders and pulled him over to a ledge on a building, followed by Melody.

"Hey! What's the big deal?" Shade protested as the brightwing peered over the corner that shielded them from sight.

She shushed him and ushered him to take a look. Shade looked over Marina's shoulder while Melody squatted down next to Shade and peeked over his arm. The dark blue bat inwardly groaned. "Pigeons? Again?"

Marina looked down to see a lamp that was helping illuminate the building and smirked mischievously. "Shade, stay here. Melody follow me."

Shade did not like the idea of being left out. "I'm coming too-"

"No." Marina stopped him, shaking her head. You have an injured wing. Besides, for this plan to work, we only need _two_ bats." She turned to the other girl and grinned, "are you in?"

Melody returned the smile and nodded, "I'm in."

The girls secretly flew down to the lamp with Marina explaining the plan to Melody on the way.

Meanwhile, Hegland, who was one of the pigeons on duty, was fidgety and none too happy that he was placed on guard duty. His eyes were wide and fearful as they scanned the surroundings. "Quit being such a scaredy bird," another pigeon chuckled, rather amused in seeing his partner in such a state.

"They were like these stone monsters come to life." Hegland whimpered as he looked at the gargoyles that decorated the outside of the cathedral. While he wasn't looking, the other pigeon lightly tapped him on the back, causing Hegland to jump and cry out in terror. The other two pigeons burst out laughing at his priceless reaction. Angered, Hegland told them, "laugh all you want. I know it's not safe out here." He began to shiver violently as another minute passed and then he saw something move from the corner of his eye, turning around he let out a scream.

The other two pigeons looked back to see what the fuss was about and saw two large shadows above them in the shape of bats. All three of them began screaming in a panic and bumped into each other as they tried to back away and take off, tripping each other on the way. Soon they flew away as fast as they could, yelling about two large bats.

In actuality, it was Marina and Melody casting their own shadows using the light from the lamp below. The girls were laughing so hard that they almost began shedding tears. Shade flew down to them with a wide smirk, "ha! That was brilliant."

"I can't believe they fell for it!" Melody tried to catch her breath as she laughed.

Marina chuckled, "I thought someone was going to break a wing trying to get away first!"

The three of them flew up to rest on the same ledge where the pigeons had occupied and tried to calm down their giggles. Shade suddenly stopped laughing and cried out as his torn wing began to get the best of him.

"Shade!" Melody quickly moved to him and placed a hand softly on his shoulder, not knowing how else to comfort him.

Catching her worried expression, Shade quickly put on a smile. "I'm ok. More importantly…" he looked around, "the colony isn't here."

"You think we've missed them already?" Marina asked softly.

Shade sighed and looked down, "I don't know." The three of them were quiet for a moment, not knowing what to do next. Wanting to lighten up the mood, Shade poked fun at the gargoyle next to him. "Heh- check out Mr. Ugly over there," he chuckled. "Tell me that _he_ doesn't look like a giant bat?"

Melody looked up at the grotesque statue that had it's jaws wide open and a long tongue sticking out and bat-like ears on both sides of its head. She shivered, "dang, these things are creepy at night."

Marina rolled her eyes and laughed, "come on you two. You don't _really_ believe in giant bats do you? That's just some story made up by scared birds."

"Actually Marina, giant bats do exist." Melody stated with a small frown. "They are just not indigenous to where we live. Some of them are pretty dangerous."

"Oh please." Marina flew up and began speaking in a mock Dracula voice, "ba! You better dash before I dine!" She landed next to Melody and put her wing around her shoulder in a comforting manner. "Really, Melody. Giant bats don't exist"

"_**Really?"**_

The three bats gasped as a large booming voice echoed. They looked up to where the voice was coming from, which turned out to be from the statue.

"_**You'd be surprised."**_

Startled, Shade jumped backwards and caught Marina and Melody by the shoulders as they jumped back into him while hugging each other in fright.

The statue chuckled gleefully and Melody tilted her head. Her hold on Marina slackened when she realized that it wasn't the statue that had spoken. It was someone _inside_ the statue.

"_**The world is filled with strange and wonderful things. Just because you've never seen them, doesn't mean they don't exist." **_

Indeed, inside the mouth of a statue, Melody caught a glimpse of an elderly small albino bat peeking out at them with glowing white eyes that shined like two twin moons.

"Like...giant bats?" Shade asked hesitantly.

The white bat just smiled kindly at them before walking back into the gargoyle's mouth.

* * *

**A/N: Can't talk! Got essay due tomorrow! See ya next chapter!**

**Carlisle Fan 22: **Yes, we are going to be seeing Goth and Throbb pretty soon now. And Zephyr has made his appearance. Yay! Thanks for the review. :)

**mchap1154: **Really? Happy belated birthday! I'm glad that the chapter ended up being some sort of birthday present. Thanks for reviewing! :D


	10. The Bat of Belfry

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 10**: The Bat of Belfry

Melody, Shade and Marina made their way into the gargoyle's mouth to discover that they were in a cozy attic room filled with herbs hanging from the ceiling to dry. The soothing smell of spices made Melody feel at ease as she curiously explored her surroundings. Compared to the previous tower where they were held captive, this place felt warm and welcoming. The white bat that had spoke to them was on the opposite side of the room. He hung upside down with his back to his guests while charting out what seemed to her as different migration routes on the wooden wall with his claw.

"Ah- graywings leaving right on time," the old bat mused to himself with a cheerful tone.

"Uh, who are you?" Shade asked.

The albino bat stopped writing and glided down off his roost. Being old with age, he landed rather heavily before straightening back up. "My name is Zephyr," he greeted warmly, "I am- uh...er…" he paused as he tried to think of the word that he was trying to say. He lightly scratched his cheek before shrugging with a careless smile, "the bat traffic controller for the migrating colonies." He waddled over to the three younger bats.

'_He just came up with that, didn't he?' _Melody gave a small smile. Zephyr reminded her of her grandfather back when he was still alive. He was just as cheerful and quirky- though not as blind as Melody could tell from his pupiless eyes.

"This city is the central hub of through which all colonies pass," he explained while Marina swooped down to take a closer look at the chart. He took notice of her actions and continued, "_those _are the flight paths my dear-"

"Marina," the brightwing filled in the blank. She pointed upwards, "and that is Shade and Melody."

"Hello," Melody greeted with a smile.

Shade made his way down to the chart as well, "you know where all the colonies are?" A hopeful tone rose in his words, "so...where are the silverwings?"

"Oh- …" the old bat searched his memory. "They passed by here about two hours ago heading south."

Melody clasped her hands together with glee, "fantastic! That means that we are not too far behind."

"Yeah!" Shade beamed, "we can up with them in no time! Let's go!"

"Well- off you go then." Zephyr replied with an underlying warning in his voice. "Unless you think that ripped wing of yours will slow you down."

Everyone looked down at Shade who seemed to forget all about his little mishap. He glanced down at his wing before the horrible sight of it caused him to fall into a dead faint. Melody and Marina looked at each other before rolling their eyes simultaneously.

"What a drama queen," Melody muttered before hopping down from where she was standing and squatted down next to the boy and poked his cheek and snickered, "out like a light." She looked at his badly torn wing and her grin faded as genuine concern took the place of amusement. "You don't suppose we can mend his wing? I know something like this can heal in time on it's own if he keeps from flying...but we need all the time we can get."

Zephyr walked over to Melody and gave her a reassuring smile, "don't you worry. I have just the thing."

* * *

By that time, the silverwings had left the city and were flying over a dark thick forest. Each and everyone of the bats were exhausted, breathing heavily from their non stop flight. Frieda worriedly glanced back at her colony until Mercury burst out of the sea of trees, heading back towards her from his solo mission of finding a safe place to rest.

"All clear!" he exclaimed and pointed in the direction where he came from, which happened to be a sawmill near the river.

"Finally," Frieda sighed happily, "a place to roost." She led her colony down to the human made landmark and chose a spot beneath a water tower to be the ideal resting place. Relieved, the silverwings hung upside down and cuddled closely with their kin. Frieda chose a spot next to Ariel, giving the younger female an apologetic expression.

Seeing it, Ariel quickly spoke, "Frieda, I'm sure Shade will catch up."

"Ariel, we can wait here a few days," the elder offered.

"_Frieda!_" A sharp raspy voice intervened, causing the two bats to look up to see an agitated Bathsheba hovering over them. "This is no time for the colony to be lazing about!"

Frieda frowned and looked over to her colony noting their fatigue. Many of them were already asleep while a select few decided to hunt.

"The weak should be left behind."

"The colony arrived together and it will leave together," Frieda insisted calmly.

Bathsheba gave a furious sigh before flying away with Frieda glaring after her with disapproval.

* * *

Zephyr took the red berries in his foot and squished them over Shade's ripped wound and spread the mush on it. The contact woke Shade who blinked with slight confusion.

"When are you going to migrate?"

The white bat turned his head in Marina's direction who sat on a wooden frame, "never. My full name is Zephyrnaia which means 'protection.' I believe it is my destiny to protect other bats as they migrate."

"Don't you miss your colony?" Marina inquired as she clutched her knees closer to her body.

"I was abandoned as a baby. Perhaps you would know what that's like?"

Marina gave a sad sigh while Melody, who currently sat near Shade, raised a quizzical brow. She wondered how Zephyr managed to guess something like that. Her attention went back to Shade who sniffed the berries on his wing and immediately turned away, his nose scrunched up. "Ugh! Ew!" He began shaking his wing free of the medicine, "get this stuff off of me, my wing is fine- ow!" he glared at Melody who had smacked him upside the head. "What was that for?"

"Your wing is _not _fine," Melody snapped, placing her hands on her hips. "I don't know if you noticed, but you still have a rather nasty tear in your wing. You could barely fly a few minutes ago."

"It's not like my wing hurts anymore," Shade retorted while rubbing his head where he was hit. "Besides, this stuff is disgusting, there is no way I'm going to keep it on."

"That _stuff _is a healing poultice," Marina flew down to them, "and your wing doesn't hurt because it's working."

Not listening, Shade gave his wing a sudden movement which caused him cry out in pain, "ow! ow-...whoa…"

Unimpressed, Melody watched him faint again and facepalmed, "he's such a kid."

Zephyr shook his head and went on to re apply the poultice to Shade's wing. Melody watched as he rubbed the medicine onto the wound when suddenly he stopped and turned to face Marina, "careful! That's strong medicine!" She looked up to see that Marina had curiously picked up a long spiraled herb. "That herb kills pain-" he bent down next to Shade who had woken up again and sat up. "Don't lick your wing or you'll be out cold for a week."

Shade gave a sigh before standing up, "lets go, girls. We've got to find the colony."

"Of all the most stubborn-" Melody grumbled to herself as he flew towards the exit with Marina after him. Really, that silverwing didn't know his own limits.

"Oh- by the way," the albino bat began with a lighthearted tone. "If that poultice falls off and your wing rips in half, just come on back." That made Shade stop in his tracks and look back at Zephyr with apparent horror on his face. The old bat smiled innocently, "I'll be happy to give you some more."

"My wing...in half?!" His eyes rolled to the back of his head and fell the ground once more before Marina could catch him.

"Ok, this is getting old," the brunette sighed before climbing up a pillar to help Marina with Shade.

* * *

Frieda stood on the very tip of the tall water tower, keeping watch while having sometime to herself. Her moment of peace ended when a lone male cardinal noticed her and rudely called out to her, "hey! This is _my_ mosquito hunting territory!"

"We silverwings are just here to rest and eat before we move on," Frieda reasoned with the red bird.

At her words, the cardinal's attitude suddenly did a 90 degree turn. "Oh, you are silverwings," he smiled brushed back his head feathers in a gentlemanly fashion, "well then, please. Stay as long as you want." He wordlessly took off again into the forest.

Frieda watched him go when Chinook landed next to her, his eyes narrowed with suspicion at the bird. His instinct told him that the bird let them off too easily.

* * *

Melody gave a yawn as she hung next to Shade, who was exercising his wing gently. She tiredly looked down to watch as Zephyr muttered to himself as he scribbled on the wall with his claw. It was not even close to sunrise yet, but routine was rather hard to break. Besides, after all the danger they had just went through tonight, Melody was willing to admit that she deserved a little bit of rest.

Marina was in a corner, examining all the different medicinal herbs. She picked up a red berry and was about to place it in her mouth.

"I wouldn't eat that," Zephyr warned without turning around. "But you might want to squeeze a little bit of it's juice under your band."

Marina hesitated, looking unsure.

"Go ahead," the old bat coaxed gently. "I can hear your skin chafing against the metal."

The brightwing did as she was instructed and squeezed the berry juice into her band. She gave a happy sigh, "oh that feels good. Hey Melody, you want some?"

"Huh?" The girl blinked, realizing that she had dozed off for a second there and looked down at Marina. "Want what?" Marina flew up to Melody and grabbed her banded wrist in her hand. She took a berry and rubbed its juice into the brunette's band. Melody's eyes widened as her skin suddenly felt relieved underneath the metal. "Wow, thanks Marina. That feels so much better."

"Anytime." She looked at Melody, a thought coming to mind and she opened her mouth to ask a question, but then she closed it. Melody tilted her head in confusion but Marina tossed the skin of the berry away and flew down to Zephyr instead, "Zephyr? Do you know why the humans banded Melody and me? Is it a curse?"

"My child," Zephyr began, "the actions of the humans are inconsistent and... eh, difficult to interoperate. Perhaps you should ask someone who actually understands the human mindset." He pointed his wing up at a shocked Melody.

"Hold on!" Melody swooped down, now wide awake, "how do you know that I'm human?"

The old bat chuckled, "I have a sharp nose, young lady. You may have the form of a bat, but the scent you give off is no different than a human's."

Baffled, Melody grabbed a chunk of her brown hair and gave it a whiff. She could faintly smell the coconut milk shampoo. The thought of taking a bath suddenly felt really pleasing.

"I'm not talking about the unnatural fragrances you put in your hair. It's your natural scent that gives you away."

"I don't smell anything," the girl let go of her hair, letting it fall where it may without much care.

"That's because you are used to it," Zephyr explained kindly.

That made sense. "So why aren't you asking me that question instead?" Melody turned to Marina, who shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another. "I told you before that the band isn't a curse. It's something the humans put on bats in order to learn more about them, and to make sure that they are living normal and healthy lives."

Marina sighed and began playing with her long blonde hair while avoiding her friend's eyes, "it's just that I- you see...the idea of you being human is something that I can't quite come to terms with. I know that you are not lying or making this up, but- it's just hard to believe, that's all. I mean, just look at you. No matter how you look at it, you are a bat."

Melody knew what Marina meant. In fact, she still could hardly come to grips with the fact that she was a bat at times. The proof was there just by spreading her arms, but for Marina, there was hardly any proof besides Melody's words. "It's ok," she replied.

"But you know? Now that Zephyr mentioned it…" Marina came close to Melody and sniffed her, causing the girl to flinch back.

"Marina, personal space please?"

The brightwing backed up and said, "you don't smell much like a bat at all."

"Uh...thanks?"

"You see?" Zephyr chimed in happily, "just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it doesn't exist."

Marina glanced at her band, disappointed. "I suppose that this band means nothing then."

Zephyr put his wing around the brightwing's shoulder and said softly, "Marina- you _are_ special, but that has nothing to do with any bands." He tapped her silver bracelet gently before walking off in another direction, accidentally walking into one of the hanging herbs. It didn't faze him much and he picked up the long spiral herb that Marina had examined off the ground.

Shade took that moment to glide down to Melody and Marina and whispered to them, "that old guy is as blind as a mole."

"Technically, I'm blinder," the albino bat admitted, picking up on Shade's words without any effort.

The male silverwing huffed and crossed his arms as he sat down, "who in their right mind would put a guy who can't see in charge of air traffic control?"

"_Shade!" _Melody hissed at him, appalled at his lack of respect for the old guy.

"Because maybe sometimes hearing might be the best way of seeing," Marina told him as she sat next to him, wearing a stern glare.

"Incredible insight for one so young," Zephyr complimented her, causing Shade to scowl and roll his eyes.

"Feh."

"I heard that."

"Huh?" Shade's eyes widened in surprise before he slouched in annoyance. "Ugh, I'm going to go to test my wing. Maybe catch a bug or two." He got up and without looking back at the girls or the old bat, Shade flew out of the tower.

Zephyr just shook his head at the young bat's rash behaviour and went back to sorting out his herbs.

Melody watched him leave and sighed. Perhaps a short flight would make him vent out some steam. Taking a look at her own wings, the brunette walked up to the old bat. "Zephyr?"

"Hmm?" he smiled and turned to her.

"I have been having a hard time getting myself off the ground no matter how hard I try. I...I think there's something wrong with my wings," Melody spread open her arms and flapped them softly.

"Let me take a look," Zephyr waddled over to Melody and took her right forearm in his hands. He gently gave it a squeeze in a few places, checking her muscles and bone structure. He did the same with her left arm and then had her open her wings out so he could examine her membrane. The examination took a few minutes, and when the old bat was done, all he said was, "your wings are perfectly fine."

"Huh?" Melody blinked, growing more confused. "I don't understand. If there is nothing wrong with my wings, then why can't I take off?"

"If my guess is correct, then you haven't been a bat for that very long," Zephyr deduced carefully, scratching his chin. "Just like a newborn fawn with legs too long, you have yet to grow into your wings. Your wings are of decent size, but their strength is limited. A good amount of flying should be able to strengthen them."

Melody dropped her wings dejectedly, figuring that it was the case. "I just wish I could get stronger faster. I have been slowing Shade and Marina down already as it is."

"There are no short cuts, my dear. I am afraid that time and hard work is the only way for you to achieve what you want."

Marina joined in, hoping to lift Melody's spirits. "It's ok, Melody. We have never thought of you as a hindrance. Not even once. If you ever need help, we'll be there. So it might take us longer to find Shade's colony- at least we'll all arrive together."

Feeling better thanks to Marina's acceptance of her weakness, Melody smiled softly. "Thanks Marina, that means a lot to me." She looked up at the exit where Shade had left and her smile faded, "speaking of Shade...does anyone else have a feeling that we shouldn't be leaving him out there alone?"

"Those pigeons are still out there," Marina agreed worriedly. "And his wing hasn't healed yet. I think we should have him come back."

"I'll go and see if I can spot him." Tentatively, Melody climbed up the gargoyle's throat and peeked outside. The cool night air rustled her hair as she nervously searched for her reckless friend. Her ears caught the sound of aggressive cooing down below and she gasped. Down below near the road, the lights illuminated the scene before her. Shade was doing his best to escape a trio of pigeons who were close at his tail. "Marina! Shade's in trouble!"

The brightwing appeared next to the female silverwing with Zephyr slowly waddling after her and gasped as she looked in the direction where Melody was pointing, "oh no!"

"Shade you idiot! Get out of the light!" Melody yelled down to him, but he was too far away to hear her. In the streetlights, the pigeons would have no trouble seeing him. Her leg muscles jerked back and forth- hesitating to go and help him. Whether she liked it or not, fear and her self preservation usually won over. She was not the type to just go head first into a dangerous conflict without some plan, unlike Shade.

"Allow me to help," Zephyr offered, placing his hands on Marina's and Melody's shoulders between them. The girls backed away, giving the old bat some room and watched as he placed his claws together in a certain meditating position and took in a deep breath.

The brunette didn't know what he was doing...if he was doing anything at all. He was just standing there, not moving. However she didn't question him and looked down to see Shade trapped on the side of a building- too tired and hurt to fly anymore. Her breath hitched inside her throat and was about to scream his name again when out of nowhere, an unfamiliar bat flew past the pigeons, distracting them from their original goal. It led them away from Shade before settling on the roof, waiting for the birds to catch up. Once they did, the bat set off again before eventually vanishing into thin air- literally.

Melody closed her and shook her head, not sure what just happened. She looked again and the pigeons were flying around aimlessly, confused with the strange bat nowhere to be seen. Soon, the bat reappeared and led the pigeons away even farther until they were out of view. Melody turned her head to Zephyr, who was still frozen in his place before he relaxed and smiled at her. She had no idea what the heck just happened, but she had an inkling that Zephyr had something to do with that mysterious bat. "How did you- what- huh?" were the intelligent words that came spilling out of her mouth.

The old albino bat chuckled at her astonishment and wordlessly walked back into the belfry. Melody and Marina looked at each other, confused. Melody looked down to make sure that Shade was returning before following after Zephyr and Marina inside.

"That was weird," Shade said when he returned. "One minute he was there, and the next- he wasn't!" He stared skeptically at the old bat and accused, "you know how he did it, don't you?"

"I don't know about the rest of you, but I personally don't think that the bat that led the pigeons away...was really there," Melody thought out loud, her wings crossed. "It was like a hologram...an illusion or something."

Zephyr stopped in front of them and turned around to face them with an impressed smile. "You have excellent perception, young lady. That indeed was only an illusion," he admitted with a nod in her direction. "Not many are able to see through such a projection with such inexperience. You have a very useful gift of seeing things for what they truly are. It may very well save your life one day."

* * *

The silverwing colony peacefully roosted below the water tower with majority of the bats sleeping. Those who were awake usually amounted to the mothers hunting and feeding their pups.

Chinook was one of the few who were awake, but it wasn't hunger that kept him up. It was the constant guilt that kept growing and growing within him. Spotting Shade's mother flying alone nearby was what finally set him off. The young dark blue bat succumbed to his guilt and could no longer stand keeping silent. Ariel _had _to know the truth. With determination but with equal hesitation, Chinook flew after her.

"Ariel?" he softly called out to her.

She looked over her shoulder, and once she recognized him- she slowed down, allowing the teenager to catch up to her. "Is it Shade?" she inquired hopefully, thinking that he might have come to inform her that her son managed to find them. "Is he here?"

Chinook silently shook his head 'no' and lowered his gaze, not wanting to see her reaction.

Sighing in disappointment, Ariel finally asked, "what is it Chinook?"

Telling her the truth was becoming harder and harder as she waited for his answer. Eventually he managed to let it out, "Tree Haven burning down- it was as much my fault as it was Shade's…and Melody's."

Ariel gasped at the confession. She led Chinook up to a streetlight where they both hung upside down so they could both talk calmly.

"I was showing off in front of Todd, Breeze and Melody," Chinook began, his voice cracking. "I shouldn't have listened to Shade when he dared me to see the sun. I couldn't let the runt- " he cowered under Ariel's stern glare and immediately tried to correct himself with a heavy sigh, "I mean… I couldn't let him show me up."

Ariel let out slow breath when he was done. She didn't reply back to him for a while, and that just crushed the young bat. He was certain that she wouldn't forgive him. He knew that he deserved as much punishment as her son had received. Chinook thought about all the times he had bullied Shade, all the times he had verbally and physically abused the smaller bat. They were the same age and he should have been his friend. He should have helped and supported Shade instead of putting him down and ridiculing him. He was supposed to do everything that Melody had done. As for Melody, there was no way he could ever look her in the eye again after being such a coward and a fibber. If he ever got to see her again that is…He would have done anything to redo the mess that he had made.

Filled with so much regret, Chinook broke and tears began streaming down his face. There was nothing he could do. What was done was done.

Seeing the boy in such despair, Ariel's motherly instincts took over and her eyes softened. She knew just how much Chinook was regretting his actions and that was enough to earn her forgiveness. A gentle smile graced her face and she scooted over to the boy. She comfortingly wrapped one wing around him, letting him know that she had forgiven him.

Relieved, Chinook wiped his tears away and added with a positive note, "I bet he's still alive. I bet that Shade and Melody are together right now, helping each other to find us again."

"I hope you're right," Ariel agreed and the two smiled at each other.

* * *

Meanwhile at the base of the city, a rat crawled out of a drain pipe and into the dark and trashed up alley to scavenge for any food that a human might have thrown away. Sniffing around, he noticed too late that he was being cornered as a large shadow draped over him. Realizing that _he _was food instead made the rat scream in fear. He didn't scream for long however. The murderous bat encased his jaws over the rodent, easily crushing it's bones. The bat laughed quietly as he left nothing but scratches on the wall that the rat left over.

* * *

Marina and Melody helped Zephyr sort his herbs while Shade hung around, moping and doping. He could still hardly believe that it was a blind bat that had saved his life, and not some brave stranger. He felt tricked, and it put him in a sour mood.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard cooing come up from above. He gazed upward, confused until he remembered what creature happened to make that very same noise. His eyes darkened and his body tensed before flying after the intruder.

Marina noticed his behavior and nudged Melody.

The girl glanced at Marina before following her line of vision to Shade. She nodded at Marina who helped her off the ground. Flying up after their friend, the girls landed next to the boy, who was glaring at something with great hostility. It was very off putting to Melody to see Shade so angry. "Shade, what's wrong?"

The smaller bat hushed her and pointed upwards. The girls looked up, not sure what it was that had Shade so riled up. It wasn't when the figure inched out of the shadows that Melody blinked in surprise, it was a pigeon! At first, the girl tensed up as well- but after seeing that the bird was moving sluggishly while favoring its right wing, Melody relaxed. The pigeon was wounded, and apparently chose this tower to hide and recover. It wasn't a threat.

Shade didn't have the same opinion. He didn't see a poor wounded animal; he saw the enemy. And all of his pent up anger for the injustice that the birds had displayed onto him and his friends went out of control. He flew out into view, startling the pigeon. "You're one of those birds that tried to kill me out there," he snarled as he clung to the ledge above the pigeon.

"Shade, what are you doing?" Melody was aghast. She could hardly recognize him like this; his blue eyes glowing dangerously in the dark with his fangs bared.

"No," the pigeon replied, shaking her head as she tried to move away from him. The poor thing was terrified. "You're mistaken. Can't you see? I'm hurt."

Shade didn't listen and advanced after her. "Owls probably killed my dad. They burned down my home and _you _guys tried to torture me and Marina. You birds tried to _kill _Melody!" his voice rose as his fury was set loose. "I hate all birds."

The pigeon whimpered and backed up as much as she could. She swayed dangerously as she stepped onto the rotting wood that creaked and bent under her weight. A piece fell off and dropped to the bottomless pit below.

Marina and Melody flinched back as it fell, unable to see it when it fell into the darkness. The only hint of it reaching the bottom was the distant _clank _that came from below.

Becoming alarmed of how this situation was unfolding, the brunette quickly began to climb after Shade. "Shade, stop it! She has nothing to do with us!"

"She's a _bird_, Melody." Shade growled down at her, as if it was reason enough. Sadly, to him…it was.

"That's not her fault!" the girl rebutted, struggling to reach him. She knew that he was angry, but his anger was being completely misplaced. If he continued like this, he might end up doing something that he would dearly regret.

The bird pleaded miserably, "Can't you see? I'm not a threat." The wood bent more under her and she began to tremble, "please! I just came here to hide!"

"Hide?! From what?" the light blue bat snapped.

"G-giant bats. They attacked my family."

"Well they probably had a good reason! I know I would!"

Marina tried to interfere as well, "Shade, she's hurt! Back off."

"Please…don't you see what you're doing?" The pigeon begged, close to tears.

"Leave her alone, Shade! This isn't like you!" Melody managed to reach the pigeon's perch. She put a bit of weight and the wood creaked dangerously, causing the girl to back off. "The wood is going to break!" There was no way that the pigeon would be able to fly with her wing possibly broken.

Shade was too far-gone in his vengefulness. Neither Melody nor Marina's words of reason were getting to him, much less the pigeon's. He forced the bird to back up, causing the wood to splinter and collapse beneath her.

"No!" Melody flung herself after the pigeon, gripping her good wing with her feet. Rescuing the bird was proving more difficult as the pigeon weighed far more than Melody did. Her weight pulled the girl down with her. Melody's flapping did slow them down, but not enough to make much of a difference. "For heaven's sake! Help me!" Melody yelled angrily at Shade and Marina.

Marina immediately went to their aid, grabbing onto the bird's foot, causing their fall to slow down considerably. Neither of the bats however had the strength to keep it up though. "She's too heavy!" the brightwing grunted, but didn't let go and fought to keep the descent at a steady pace. It didn't help that the pigeon was panicking and flailing about.

Shade had frozen still, his eyes wide in horror. He was in shock from what was happening, and it wasn't until Melody began shouting that he managed to snap out of it. "Oh no…" he whispered, realizing what he had done. He quickly swooped down after them.

"Stop moving around so much or we'll drop you!" Melody's voice strained as she spoke to the pigeon, "calm down." Oh God, her arms felt like they were going to burn off. She wasn't going to be able to hold her up much longer.

Shade managed to reach them and grabbed a hold of the bird's other foot. "I've gotcha!" His assistance made the job so much easier. The three bats gently lowered the pigeon onto a wide wooden plank before collapsing down from exhaustion.

"Never in my life…" Marina panted, trying to get herself to inhale enough oxygen, "...have I ever thought...I'd save...a pigeon."

Melody's eyes were closed, her chest heaving up and down, her lungs burning. She could only grunt in reply to Marina's comment. After having a moment, Melody managed to get back onto her two feet. Her arms felt like limp noodles right then and there. She had no doubt that she was going to feel them in the morning. She stumbled over to the fallen pigeon, and lightly tapped her face with her wings. "Mrs. Pigeon...Mrs. Pigeon?" she called gently.

The trembling bird opened her wide yellow eyes at Melody's voice and looked up at her.

The brunette gave a sigh of relief and smiled, "thank goodness, you're alright. You are safe now. It's ok." She comforted the bird with sweet soft words, the very same way that she spoke to the sick bats back home. "You are alive."

Calming down after a few minutes of Melody hushing her and stroking her feathers, the bird closed her eyes and whispered, "thank you."

Shade shifted uncomfortably behind them, concern apparent on his face. "Is she...going to be ok?"

Hearing Shade's voice, something in Melody snapped. She swirled around and stomped over to him, her expression enraged. "You _asshole!" _she screamed in his face, all matters of calm sensible composure flying out the window.

The boy fell back onto his rear end, startled by Melody's sudden anger and unexpected use of language. Even Marina backed away, too frightened to get involved. "M-Melody?" he stammered weakly.

"You nearly had her killed, Shade! _Killed!" _Melody repeated, as if saying the word once wasn't enough to get it to sink into his head. "If you think that the birds are bad, then take a good look at yourself! How are _you _any better?"

"I-I…"

"You are just as prejudiced and narrow minded as that General Brutus! She did nothing to harm any of us! What right did you have to lay all the blame on her? What crime did she commit besides being _born_ as a bird?" The girl breathed heavily, glaring down at the one she called a friend.

"I...I'm sorry," the silverwing barely managed to say, his eyes searching hers for forgiveness. "Melody, I'm-"

"_Sorry_, yes. You'd better be," Melody hissed. "But it's not to me you should be apologizing." Turning her back to the boy, the brunette walked towards the edge of the plank and spread open her wings.

"Where are you going?" Marina took a step towards Melody, finding it safe to speak again.

"I need some fresh air," was all that the girl said before jumping off the board and flying off. She flew past Zephyr who hung upside down beside his chartings and out of the belfry. The old bat sighed and shook his head, but didn't say a word.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh my goodness! I don't know about all of you, but I really did not see that coming. I originally was going to let the bird fall to it's death, but then Melody just took over. It's amazing how one's original characters sometimes end up surprising you by taking control of your hands. But dang...she really let Shade have it. What's going to happen next? Not even I know (aside for what's obvious...hint hint...wink wink).

**Guest (who I am assuming is mchap1154 for obvious reasons): **Are we at your favorite episode yet? If so, I sure hope I did not disappoint. And you are welcome! :D

**Carlisle Fan 22: **Zephyr is one of the best characters in the show. I would love to have a plushie of him, I mean...he's just adorable! Oh, and it's not _my_ birthday. It's one of the reviewer's. My birthday isn't until next month. xD But thanks for the cookie! I shall treasure it.

**Rennay: **Yay! Thanks for reviewing. :)

**Xerra: **I still don't know how I'll have Goth react to Melody. I of course know how Melody would react to him- but we shall have to wait and see. :D

**Cold-heart-Angel23: **Thanks for your reviews! I'm really glad you are enjoying so far. :)


	11. Forgiveness

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 11: Forgiveness**

To say that Shade was in turmoil was an understatement. He sat there next to the unconscious pigeon, his hands clutching his head not moving. If it wasn't for Melody, he would have had no choice but to label himself as a murderer. He had never meant for the pigeon to fall, it was an accident! He was so consumed by hatred that he couldn't see that the wood beneath her was rotten. The silverwing had ignored the cries of his friends for him to stop. And now, Melody was probably never going to forgive him.

"I'm such an idiot," he whispered to himself, squeezing his eyes shut.

Zephyr flew down to the pigeon and carefully inspected her wing, taking advantage of her unconscious state so he wouldn't hurt her. "Her wing is dislocated. Lucky thing that it isn't broken," he said.

"Did you see...err...hear everything that happened?" Marina asked the old bat.

"I heard a young bat blinded by his anger," Zephyr answered softly as he pulled out the pigeon's wing out and placed his foot on top of the shoulder. "Then I saw something change in him," he sharply put down his weight on the bird's wing, causing the joint to snap back into place with a loud pop. The bird moaned but didn't wake up. "There now, she will be alright."

Shade gave a sad sigh, "I just don't know how she will forgive me for nearly killing her. What if she ends up turning against us? What if she warns the rest of her flock that we are here?" He felt Marina put a comforting wing around his shoulder and he leaned into her.

"You must never underestimate the power of a kind act, even to one's enemy," Zephyr said wisely as he turned around to the young bats, "real or imagined." Marina raised a quizzical eyebrow at the old bat and he just merely smiled. He then closed his eyes while taking in a deep breath before letting out an echo projection.

Shade saw someone from the corner of his eye wrapping a pair of protective wings around him. At first he thought it was his mother, but the coloring of the fur was off. Instead of a dark purple it was dark blue. He jumped back when he saw it was Melody smiling kindly at him. "Melody?!" he exclaimed in disbelief, "you're back?"

The girl merely tilted her head slightly and shrugged.

"I don't understand. Aren't you mad at me? I thought-"

"Shade," the brightwing interrupted him.

The boy looked up at her and she silently pointed over to Zephyr who appeared to be in a trance. Suddenly the image of Melody flickered and faded away in a shimmer of light. Shade gasped at the realization, "wait- that was...she was… and that bat that saved me out there; both were echo projections?"

The old bat just chuckled and hopped away.

"I don't get it," Marina scratched behind her ear. "He's blind and never seen Melody before. How in tarnation did he know exactly what she looked like?"

"I have been blind since birth, my child. However, there are other ways of seeing," Zephyr answered over his shoulder. "I just happened to unravel a few mysteries."

Shade was still in awe and could not resist in asking at the given opportunity, "will you teach me?"

* * *

Melody let out a deep breath as she flew as low as she dared to, close to the street, making sure to stay out of the light in case any pigeons or owls were still nearby. Already she was regretting for snapping at Shade the way she did. Sure, she was still pretty angry with him and his actions were unacceptable, but…Melody still understood what drove him to act the way he did. His kind was ostracized, his home was destroyed, his colony was threatened, and they were constantly on the run from the birds.

He was the victim of a prejudiced system- therefore it really scared her to see it mold him into exactly what he was against from the start. Remembering the viciousness in the eyes of her fun loving and gentle friend made Melody shudder. She shook her head, "stop it Melody. Shade knows better…" her hazel eyes narrowed angrily as the previous scene replayed itself in her head. "He _should _have known better!"

In the middle of her ranting, she heard an anguished cry causing her to instinctively fly into hiding beneath the canopy of a nearby restaurant. She tentatively peeked out as the cry turned into sobs. It was coming up from somewhere from the neighboring building across the street. Now, Melody was an intelligent girl. She knew that the smart thing would be to turn around, fly back to the belfry and not get involved with whatever _that_ was. In fact, that was exactly what she began to do before the usual nagging of curiosity overtook her.

"Don't do it, Melody. Curiosity is exactly what turned you into a bat in the first place," she tried to convince herself.

"_Oh, but what harm could possibly come from taking a small peek?" _ Her curiosity countered.

"Indeed. What sort of harm could ever come from taking off Elliot's glasses? No. This is not my problem."

The voice in the back of her head didn't relent. "_That's cold coming from you. Someone is clearly in need of help and yet you are turning your back and running away?"_

"I prefer to stay alive, thank you very much." The crying became more pitiful and Melody grimaced as her conscience began to side with her curiosity. As much as she wished to deny it, she knew that she couldn't just leave like this. At least not before she could see what had happened. "You are going to be the death of me," she muttered before turning back around and flying up towards the sound of the sobbing.

"_That's what I'm here for, sister."_

Melody scaled the building before choosing a safe spot around the corner on top of a window ledge. Carefully, she looked around the corner to see a very familiar pigeon. "Hegland?" she gasped and slapped her hands over her mouth, but it was too late.

"Wha- huh?" The pigeon turned around in time to see Melody staring at him with wide eyes. "Y-y-you! What do you want? H-haven't you bats done enough?!"

"Done? But we haven't done anything to you!" Melody defended quickly. "You said yourself that we weren't the ones that attacked your friend."

"I c-c-could have been wrong," the pigeon stammered and shook his head in confusion. His eyes were brimmed with tears. "I'm always w-wrong. All the other birds call me stupid and n-never believe a word I say."

Sympathy filled Melody's heart at this distraught bird's words, and she softly said, "don't say that. You're not stupid." She climbed over the corner to him, but stayed a reasonable distance away. "If you say that giant bats attacked you, then that is what happened."

Hegland blinked in disbelief at her, "y-you…believe me?"

"Well, I have no reason not to," Melody shrugged before her eyes caught sight of something behind Hegland and she froze. It was a nest and it was completely destroyed with feathers all over the place and broken eggshells that had remnants of yolk dripping out. "W-what happened?"

The pigeon looked down at the broken nest and burst into tears once again. "My sister…my nieces and nephews…those monster bats must have e-e-eaten them! They killed my best friend right in front of m-me! S-she was the only family I had left."

"Hegland…" Melody gently crawled over to him until she was on the same ledge as him. "That's terrible, I'm so sorry."

"Sh-she was the only bird who ever listened to me. None of my brothers cared. And she was so kind and-and beautiful." He sniffed and took a shaky breath before continuing; "she had such lovely golden eyes, and had three stripes on her back. G-grandpappy used to say those stripes meant good luck, b-but…"

"Hold on a moment," Melody interrupted him, "did you say that she had gold eyes and three stripes on her back?"

"Yeah."

"Did she also happen to have light gray hair-err..feathers up here?" she pointed to her head.

"How d-did you know?"

Melody thought for a moment and then gave a large smile, "Hegland, I think your sister is safe."

The pigeon stopped his crying and looked at the girl with incredulous eyes. "W-what?"

"I met a female pigeon exactly the way you described not too long ago! She even said that giant bats attacked her family too. If I'm right, it could be her!" Melody exclaimed with excitement.

"She's alive? Dolly's alive?!" Hegland cried out with joy. "Where? Where is she?"

"She's-" Melody stopped herself and bit her lip. Crap she nearly messed up there for a second. She searched Hegland's eyes for any possible betrayal before speaking, "Hegland, if I take you to her…you're not going to tell anyone else about my friends and me, are you?"

The bird crossed his heart with the tip of his wing, "I promise," he replied sincerely. "May a bee sting my tongue if I ever go back on my word."

Deciding that his word would have to do, Melody nodded and smiled. "Alright then, follow me." The young silverwing spread open her wings and dived off the building with Hegland behind her. Being careful as usual, the girl stayed clear from the lights- though that caused the pigeon some trouble.

"I c-can't see! Miss silverwing!"

Melody immediately stopped in midair and shushed him. "Quiet! I can't go in the light in case the other birds see me. I'll stay close in front of you so you can at least see me."

"A-alright."

"And my name is Melody- in case you were wondering," she flew more slowly in consideration to Hegland.

"Melody? That's real pretty. Y'know, it reminds me of music and boy do I love music."

"I have yet to meet a bird that doesn't." Melody was quick to learn that Hegland was a chatterbox, because he just kept on talking.

"Do you like to sing? I love singing, except every bird keeps telling me that I'm tone deaf, but what do they know? I can sing just fine-"

Melody rolled her eyes and said, "Hegland, I mean no disrespect but I would appreciate it if you stayed quiet until we reach the belfry. I really don't want to attract any attention."

"Oh! Right…yeah. I'll be quiet. Quiet as an egg. You won't hear a peep out of me, because I am the master of being q-" he trailed off when Melody glared back at him and Hegland chuckled nervously before whispering, "quiet."

The girl shook her head but was grateful that the bird managed to keep his beak shut until they reached the cathedral.

Unfortunately, Hegland's chattering did attract the attention of the two carnivorous bats that stayed hidden in the shadows of the alleyway. The shorter bat licked his lips hungrily and was about to fly after them but the wing of his larger companion blocked his way.

"Patience, mi amigo," said the taller bat with a conniving grin. "All good things to those who wait."

* * *

"What I have to show you, you must be ready to see," Zephyr told Shade. "Only one in a million bat can echo project." He leaned down to pick up another herb, "we'll see. First there are a few skills you need to master." He waddled off to a corner where he had more herbs stashed up.

Shade flew after him and asked with an impatient tone, "like what?"

"There's sound mapping, star navigation, and uh- what was it? Herbal remedies."

The young silverwing was instantly put off. "Herbal remedies? What do I do if I get cornered by an owl, throw leaves at him?" the boy laughed.

The old blind bat turned around to face Shade and measured him with his echolocation. "You obviously cannot use your size to overpower the enemy," he stated as-a-matter-of-factly.

"He's sensitive about his size," Marina whispered into Zephyr's ear.

"The more you know, the better chance you'll have against much stronger opponents." Zephyr walked over to the boy and with ease, swept Shade's foot out from under him and pushed him to the ground.

"Whoa!" The young bat cried out as he fell and stared up at the elder with great surprise.

"Do you understand?"

Shade hesitated for a moment, still stunned, "oh- I see…I'm ready." He smiled and held out a hand to shake.

Zephyr was about to take his hand when someone entered the tower.

Looking upwards, Shade and Marina saw Melody flying down with a pigeon following after her. "W-what?!" Shade could hardly believe what he was seeing, "Melody! What are you doing?!"

"Are you trying to get us killed?" Marina exclaimed.

The brunette ignored the two of them and flew down past them, leading Hegland to where the female pigeon still lay unconscious. Landing, Melody looked up at him, "is it her?"

Hegland gasped and ran towards his sister, "Dolly! You're alive! Dolly!"

The female pigeon stirred at the sound of her brother's voice and her eyes opened, "oh…Hegland? Is that you?"

Hegland was in tears as he helped her up. "Dolly, I thought you was a goner! When I saw the nest, I was so scared."

Dolly nuzzled Hegland's face and stroked his back with her good wing. "I'm alright, little brother. I've only hurt my wing is all. Where is Lorester?"

The male pigeon shifted his feet uncomfortably and looked away when she asked about her mate, "giant bats got him, sis. They ate him right in front of me, they did. I-I couldn't do anything."

Anguished by the news, Dolly collapsed against her brother's chest sobbing. "No, not him too! They took my chicks and now Lorester. How could they be so cruel?!"

"You still have me, Dolly," Hegland embraced her tightly. "Family sticks together."

"I'm so glad you're safe, Hegland. Thank goodness you're still alive."

Melody decided to leave the two alone together. They needed time to heal both physically and emotionally. She flew back up to Shade and Marina, who watched the scene with wide eyes.

"Is it ok?" the brightwing asked her friend, "I mean…bringing another pigeon in here?"

"Yeah. He promised not to give us away," Melody nodded slightly.

Wanting to apologize once more, Shade neared her slowly, "umm…Melody?" He sighed and looked down when Melody crossed her arms and turned her back on him with a loud "Humph!" This was going to take a while.

* * *

The next night in the forest outside of the city, the cardinal had a meeting with Brutus and his owls. "Ok, I'll tell you where the silverwings are if you give me exclusive mosquito hunting rights for the whole valley."

Brutus stopped tapping his claw against the stump of a tree and growled at the small bird, not amused with the cardinal's lofty attitude.

The red bird backed away slightly and gave a nervous chuckle when he noticed that he was starting to cross the line by giving demands to the owl. "Ok, half the valley would also work, yeah?"

"You'll lead a squadron of my owls to the water tower," the general commanded, leaving no room for arguments. "We'll talk about hunting rights _after _the entire silverwing colony is annihilated!"

"Sure thing! I mean- you are the boss, sir…general…boss-general-sir." The cardinal gulped at the owl's annoyed expression and bowed. "Yes, general Brutus."

* * *

Meanwhile, Shade, Marina and Melody were taking a test from Zephyr as they hung out in the mouth of the gargoyle. Melody specifically kept her distance from the silverwing as she kept Marina as a barrier between them. It annoyed the boy since she had been giving him the silent treatment, not that he could really do anything about it. It was obvious that she was still mad at him.

Zephyr held up a green herb and the young bats thought for a moment.

"Stinging nettle!" Marina answered abruptly.

"H-hey! I was going to say that!" Shade protested.

Zephyr continued with a smile on his face, "used for what?" He looked over to the boy, "Shade?"

The male silverwing was silent as he tried to remember the answer when Melody took the question instead.

"Aching joints, duh."

Shade groaned. Ok, he got that Marina was a know-it-all, but Melody was doing this on purpose just to spite him. "Oh, that will come in handy. When I'm old…" he grumbled and turned his back on the teacher, crossing his arms. After a few seconds, he stretched and began to complain, "we've been at this for almost two whole nights and you _still _haven't gotten around to echo projection! Just constellations and boring herbs."

Zephyr smiled knowingly at the teenager's impatience and picked up a dried up leave and began to poke holes into it with his claw. "Shade, you will need this knowledge for the journey ahead." He held out the leaf to him and asked, "what is it?"

Shade grudgingly looked at it and turned his head away, "a leaf?" he asked smartly.

"And-?" Zephyr prodded him patiently.

Marina took the leaf into her hand, allowing for both Melody and Shade to take a good look at the pattern. They soon all looked at each other and smiled as they figured it out. Marina held out the leaf to the sky, matching the holes in the leaf to the stars in the sky, drawing out the constellation.

"Well done!" Zephyr praised his students. "You three are beginning to use your brains."

"_Now _can I learn echo projection?" Shade asked eagerly.

The albino bat smiled silently and motioned them to follow him back into the tower.

Shade pumped his fist into the air, "alright!" and flew down after Zephyr.

Back in the tower, the three adolescent bats sat side by side, again with Marina in the middle.

"Capture the object with your heart," Zephyr instructed, his thumb and forefingers pressed together. "Listen to it form in your imagination."

Shade closed his eyes and brought his claws to his head to help him concentrate.

"Once you can hear it, sing it."

The boy struggled to perform the task, squeezing his eyes tightly. "Ugh…can you see it?" he asked the girls.

"See what?" Marina raised an eyebrow.

"A giant bat. Like the gargoyles with…ugh…huge claws and teeth."

Melody snorted and rolled her eyes. Like he was going to accomplish something like that on the first try.

"Uh- that would be a no," Marina answered.

Shade opened his eyes and sighed in frustration, clutching his fists.

"Try something simpler, like- uh…a leaf." Zephyr advised.

Trying again, Shade put his hands to his head, closed his eyes and began to hum, trying to find the right pitch. His face scrunched up as he concentrated really hard.

Deciding that it was boring to just watch Shade try to master this skill, Melody decided to give it a shot herself and closed her eyes. She gently clasped her hands together and leaned her head back as she relaxed her mind. She breathed in and out slowly as she began to form the image of a leaf in her mind.

Marina noticed a blurry and distorted image of a leaf form in front of Shade but it quickly vanished. Shade groaned as if the whole ordeal gave him a headache. The brightwing laughed at his poor attempt of a leaf.

Zephyr smiled, "well done Shade!"

Shade sighed and shook his head, "but I couldn't hold it. It's got to be longer and bigger…and scarier."

The old bat placed his hand on the boy's shoulder, "your emotions are getting in the way, Shade. You must clear your mind and ease your body. See? Melody has the hang of it."

"Huh?" Shade looked over to the brunette who looked like she was in a peaceful trance. To his astonishment, she didn't just make a perfect leaf. She was making it shower all sorts of different leaves around her, various shapes and colors as if she was enjoying a simple autumn outing. He scowled, "you can stop showing off now, Melody."

"Huh?" Melody snapped out of her little world and the leaves vanished into thin air. "Did I do it? Did I make a leaf?"

"A leaf?" Marina began incredulously, "you were making it rain leaves everywhere!"

The girl blinked and scratched behind her ear, not expecting to get such a result, "oops…I was trying to go for one, but I ended up imagining up a whole scenery."

Shade scoffed angrily, "yeah right! You did that on purpose. You've been trying to get on my case since yesterday!"

"I'm sorry, did you hear something?" Melody asked Marina, completely ignoring Shade.

Shade stood up and glared at the female silverwing, "there you go again! When will you finally speak to me? This is getting ridiculous!" He threw his arms up in agitation.

"There it is again," Melody twisted her pinkie in her ear, as if trying to clean it out. "Is there a fly in here?"

Shade was about to blow up in her face when Zephyr intervened, "come my boy. Eh- take a break and stretch your wings. All of you." He added to Marina and Melody.

"But-" Shade began.

"You can pick some stinging nettle for me. A patch of it grows in an alley not far from the cathedral."

Not wanting to disappoint the old bat after he had taught them so much, the three teenagers wordlessly flew out of the belfry to gather stinging nettles for him.

"Keep alert and listen," Zephyr called after them before he sighed and shook his head, "kids these days."

* * *

Shade glanced at his reflection in the skyscraper as they flew past its windows before turning his attention to the female bat in front of him and Marina. He tried to catch her eye, but she stubbornly avoided him. He sighed and gave up.

Melody knew that she was acting childish, but she stayed firm. Until Shade made an attempt to apologize to Dolly, she was not going to acknowledge him one bit. The truth of it was that she hoped that he would do it soon. There was nothing she wanted more than to make up and be good friends again. It wasn't just causing her and Shade problems, but it was making Marina uncomfortable as well. Melody was quite aware of that.

They flew down to an alley and landed next to a patch of stinging nettles.

"We'll pick, you stand guard," Marina told Shade.

"What am I going to guard against? A plant?" He grabbed the nettle and began to pull.

Melody turned to Marina, "I'll stand guard."

The brightwing nodded with gratitude and Melody peered out of the alley, making sure that no one was going try and attack them.

Shade managed to pull out the plant only to tumble backwards onto his back. He grinned and held out the herb to Marina who smiled in return. Suddenly her expression turned horrified and she gasped.

"What? "Looking back around to where Marina pointed, "what is it?" Shade saw an owl hovering over them and gasped as well.

Hearing an owl screech, Melody swirled around to see an owl cornering her friends and she freaked out, "look out!" Where did it come from? She was certain that nothing came into the alley from the sky while she was looking.

Taking a defensive position in front of Marina, Shade swung the nettles at the owl causing it cry out and vanish into thin air. The three bats stared into the space where the bird was just standing before hearing clapping. They turned around to see Zephyr prancing in place like a joyful child, laughing giddily.

The young bats sighed in relief, more than glad that it was only Zephyr playing a trick on them.

* * *

Chinook was in the middle of hunting a tiger moth when a pair of flying squirrels stopped him.

"Hey you!" One of them snapped.

"Yeah, you!" The second echoed.

The first one spoke again, "so tell us what's going with the bats and the owls, huh?"

Chinook hesitated and chose his words carefully, "uhh…I don't know," he lied. Squirrels weren't birds, but the bats didn't exactly have a good reputation among the land animals either.

"We flying squirrels are tired of being mistaken for bats!"

"It's harassment!" the second agreed. "Just because we have fur and can fly doesn't mean that the owls can pull us over on a whim."

"Yeah! Word on the treetop is this colony of silverwings going around killing pigeons!"

The young bat's eyes widened at the news.

"General Brutus has decreed that all bats be questioned and any silverwings be imprisoned."

"Say," began the other squirrel with suspicion lacing its voice. "What _kind_ of a bat did you say you were?"

"Uh…" Chinook thought fast, "a chickenwing!"

Luckily for him, the squirrels were not very bright minded.

"Ok then. Well, we gotta fly."

"We're outta here!" The two squirrels left without a second thought.

Glad that they were finally gone, Chinook flew back to his colony as fast as his wings could carry him. He had to relay this news to Frieda. "I can't believe I'm saying this…but I'll have to thank Todd for the insult later." On his way back, he saw something fly in the distance and used his echolocation to help him identify what it was. His eyes widened when he realized that it was that very same cardinal leading a group of owls towards the water tower. He clenched his fangs together in anger and sped up.

* * *

Shade hesitated as he peered behind a wooden pole at the pair of pigeons huddled next to each other, their heads buried beneath their wings in sleep. He let out a deep breath and walked up to them, knowing that he had to do this sooner or later. "Um…excuse me? Mrs. Pigeon?"

One of the birds shifted and pulled her head out of from under her wing. She blinked sleepily at Shade. "Melody?" she asked quietly before stiffening when she realized who exactly it was addressing her. "Oh! You are…"

"My name is Shade," the young bat said quietly, his eyes averted in shame. "I-uh…want to apologize for that time. I lost my temper and I took it out on you when you didn't even deserve it. You nearly died because of me." He got down on his knees and bowed his head to the floor. "I'm very, _very _sorry. If there was a way I could make it up to you…"

Dolly relaxed and her ruffled feathers smoothed out again. Her yellow eyes softened at his apology and she smiled. "You are forgiven, little bat. I know you did not mean for things to turn out they way they did. Besides, you have already made it up to me."

Shade raised his head up in confusion, "I…I did?"

"You helped rescue me when I fell. You could have chosen not to, but you did. That is enough for me."

The boy sat up and gave a small smile, "thank you."

Dolly cooed in response and bobbed her head to the side, "I think someone else wants to make up with you as well."

Shade turned his head to where Dolly was looking and saw Melody standing there, leaning against the wall silently. Her eyes met with his and he flew over to her. "Melody, please forgive me."

"Ok."

"I know you don't want to talk to me- but I just want you to listen to what I have to…wait..." Shade paused and did a double take, "what?" She just _talked _to him.

Melody gave him a sad smile before walking to him and giving him a tight hug. "You really scared me back then, you know that? I've never seen you look like that before with your eyes glowing like that and your fangs bared…and you wouldn't listen to a word I said."

Shade relaxed against her and returned her embrace, resting his cheek against her soft brown hair. "I'm sorry. I was an idiot."

"Yeah…you kinda were."

"Hey!"

Melody giggled and broke away from him and flicked his pink nose with her claw. "Friends?"

The boy rubbed his nose and grinned in return, "silly human. We never stopped being friends."

Her smile faded a bit and she said, "and I'm sorry too…for calling you a…you know…"

Shade shrugged, brushing off her apology as if it wasn't necessary, "eh, I deserved it.

"Oh!" Melody perked up and opened her wings; "I forgot that I promised to pick some more herbs for Zephyr. I'll be back soon."

"Okay, see yah. Watch out for owls!" Shade warned her.

"Sure thing," Melody grinned and flew off, leaving a relieved and a very happy Shade Silverwing.

He went to find Zephyr and Marina who stood at the gargoyle's mouth, seeing Melody off as she went to find the herbs. The old bat continued to give them their lecture as they waited for her to come back. "Now you can hear the world around you with emotions that are calm and a heart that is open." Zephyr fell silent and a shooting star flashed past, causing Marina and Shade to gasp in awe.

"You can hear a star?" Shade asked.

"Hear? No," Zephyr shook his head. "But, I can sense it."

"Don't you think we should wait for Melody before continuing this lesson?" Marina inquired, not wanting for her friend to be left out. "I'm sure she would love to be here for this."

Zephyr chuckled, "no need. She has already mastered this lesson. Remember how she managed to echo project? She had managed to take the anger that she had directed at you, Shade and let it go. She opened herself up to her surroundings and accepted them as well as herself."

Shade rubbed the back of his neck and frowned, "I guess I have yet to get that far."

"Every bat is different, Shade. What you lack in patience, you make up for in persistence," Zephyr explained gently.

Shade thought for a moment before asking, "Zephyr? You said that you could sense a star. Can you sense what's happening to my colony?"

The old bat moved his ears about, trying to pinpoint the silverwing colony. "So many colonies…" he muttered as he concentrated. "So much interference." He paused for a second and then announced, "Something is wrong. _Very_ wrong. They are in grave danger."

"Where? Where are they?" Shade felt himself grow increasingly anxious.

"In the valley south of the city."

"I have to warn them!" Shade exclaimed and turned to Marina. "We need to find Melody and leave right away!"

"Be careful," Zephyr warned. "There are owls patrolling this area."

Shade and Marina nodded and were about to leave before taking one last look at their mentor.

Zephyr gave them a warm smile, "tell Melody that I wish her the best of luck of finding and returning back to her family."

"We will," Marina replied gently and took off after Shade to find Melody.

"May your vision stay clear," Zephyr whispered.

* * *

"We should fly low so the owls won't see us," Marina said as they searched for their friend. Suddenly a shadow flew over them and the brightwing gasped. "Shade, fly down!"

Shade looked up and saw an owl flying overhead. The two bats quickly dove down lower, and to their relief; the owl didn't seem to have noticed them. In fact, it seemed to already have its sights set on something.

Looking ahead, Marina saw what had the owl's attention, and it gripped her heart with fear. "_MELODY!_"

Shade gasped and flew as fast as he could to reach his best friend, "Melody! Watch out!"

Melody was in the middle of dragging out the herb that she found onto the street when she heard the distressed voices of her friends crying out to her. "Huh?" She looked in their direction and her eyes widened in horror. There was an owl charging down right at her with its talons at the ready. Without a second thought, the girl dropped the plant that she was holding and began to run while trying to get herself off the ground. "No-no-no-no!" she squeaked as she flapped her wings in vain. "Not now! Why won't you stupid wings work when I need you!?"

The shadow of the owl fell upon her, and she knew that there was no getting away. Melody shrieked as the owl snatched her by the wings.

"Melody!" She heard her friends screaming her name as they gave chase.

Shade dove down at the owl, but the bird easily smacked him away with a flap of his wing.

Struggling to get out the bird's grasp, Melody did what she could do in this situation and yelled, "let go of me!" She dug her teeth deep into the owl's foot. The owl screeched and let her go. Melody darted away as fast as her wings could carry her, her heart threatening to break out of its rib cage. The owl however quickly recovered and flew after her again, now furious.

Melody tried to lose the owl by zigzagging through the air. She had no doubt that this owl was going to try and eat her. She was on their death row list after all. Unfortunately for Melody, getting away from this particular owl wasn't going to be nearly as easy as the last time. There were no trees to act as an obstacle and no place to hide. And as nature would have it, owls were stronger flyers than bats. Luck was definitely not on her side this time.

As she predicted, the owl easily gained on her and caught her in its clutches once again. This time though, it pinned her wings at her sides and she couldn't wriggle free enough to bite it again.

"Melody!" Shade yelled, but suddenly another large shadow swooped over him and Marina, causing them to falter in the air for a second.

The brightwing gasped, not believing what she was seeing. "No! It…can't be."

* * *

**A/N: **I had hoped that I would get this chapter out by Halloween, and vwala! It's 12:31 in the morning...ehehehe. I really lost track of time. But yeah. Classes, midterms are finally over and I've still got job hunting to do, so I probably won't post as often as I would like. But yeah, we are finally at the part I'm sure you're all waiting for. Our two favorite bad boys have arrived! Mwahahaha!

**mchap1154: **I had a suspicion that it was you. Heehee! To be honest, I didn't think that the fight would drag out this long...but hey. Melody is as Melody does.

**Carlisle Fan 22: **As you could probably tell, I took your suggestion to consideration, but I decided to make Hegland her little brother. It's just on another fic, which I'm sure you all have already read...him being her mate has already been done before. I just wanted to add in my flavor instead. And I had the pigeon who got eaten be her mate...yeah, I'm evil that way. I hope you enjoyed anyway!

**Cold-heart-Angel23: **Of course he would apologize. Melody means too much to him to just let it stay that way.

**devildog451: **I will make more when I have the time. College classes and job hunting and such. And wow, this GothxOC question gets asked a lot. I shall answer it like I always have. I have no idea. Maybe. Maybe not. The story writes itself. We will have to wait and see.


	12. Friend or Foe?

**Gone Batty**

* * *

**Chapter 12: Friend or Foe?**

Melody twisted her body about, straining her muscles in attempt to somehow slip out of the owl's grasp but it only grew tighter. The current position she was in disabled her from biting the bird again. Eventually, the girl stopped and hung her head, exhausted from over exerting herself. Who was she kidding? There was no way that she was going to get out of this situation. She had one chance and she blew it. She watched the buildings pass under them helplessly, resigning to her fate when-

"Hola."

An unexpected silky voice drawled, sending goosebumps up Melody's skin, prickling up her fur. She lifted her hazel eyes only to be met with intense green ones. Melody went rigid and her gasp got lost in her throat. Before her was the largest spectral bat that she had ever seen, nearly as large as the owl! He had impressive purple wings that curled at the tips, long reddish brown hair that flew back in the wind, and a neatly trimmed goatee on his chin. He flashed her a devious smirk before turning his attention to the confused owl who was also overwhelmed to see that the rumors of the giant bats existing being true.

The giant bat cut off the owl's path with a dark chuckle and Melody was shocked to realize that he was challenging the owl. She knew that spectral bats could kill and eat small birds but...an owl was no small bird. Her captor charged at the bat, only to have him easily move out of the way. At first the bird kept flying, but after noticing that the bat wasn't going to lay off, the owl turned around and confronted his opponent head on.

The girl gasped in terror, understanding that she was about to be caught in the middle of a fierce battle. "Oh no..." she clenched her eyes shut seconds before the two creatures clashed with each other. The bat built up his speed and rammed into the owl's chest- overpowering it in midair.

Melody cried out as she was roughly swung about; rather scared that she might accidentally snap her neck. Her vision swam before her and her stomach leapt into her chest, making her confused on which way was up or down. It was like riding a freaking roller coaster...and considering the fact that Melody never allowed anyone to drag her onto one, this was making her sick.

With amazing strength, the bat threw the owl, startling it enough to let go of Melody. The girl was so dizzy and disoriented that she just fell for a couple meters before the sensation of falling snapped her out of it. Quickly regaining control of her wings, Melody made a mad dash to get the hell away from this war zone, not bothering to look back. She took refuge on the rooftop of a building, trying to catch her breath with her hand over her heart in attempt to calm it down.

"Melody!" Shade and Marina caught up to her, enveloping her in a protective hug from both sides.

"You're not hurt are you?" Marina asked worriedly, searching her friend for any visible wounds.

Melody shook her head and answered weakly, "no...I don't think so."

The three young bats didn't have time to relax however as the owl spotted them. It went straight for them, causing Shade and Marina to gasp. Tightening their grip on Melody they tried to shield her with their bodies, even though it wouldn't do any good.

But the giant bat intervened once more and slammed his clawed feet into the owl's back with a mighty roar, throwing it off course. He dug his claws into its back and held on while laughing the entire time as the owl struggled to shake him off. It was clear that this spectral bat was merely toying with the bird by this point. The owl had difficulty flying with an added weight to its back and flew into a row of light bulbs on the side of a building. It's talons crushed each one as it slid across the surface, trying to skid to a stop. The surface quickly ran out and the owl was forced to wrestle the bat in midair. The bat managed to come on top in the struggle and the pair fell to the roof where Melody and her friends were huddled together. The two creatures rolled about and the the owl managed to break free from the bat. It tried to crush his skull with his talons, but the bat was able to dodge out of the way seconds before impact. The large bat then took his deadly clawed finger and sliced a deep cut into the owl's torso with a snarl. The bird cried out from the pain and launched itself at its enemy once more. The bat easily maneuvered around the attack and flew up to the brick wall, speedily climbing across it. He stopped into an offensive stance, grinning madly at the bird. The two had a stare off for a moment and it was clear that the injured owl was starting to tire out. Deciding to end the battle, the bat flew at the owl and overpowered it in its last struggle. Finally, the spectral bat clamped his jaws onto the bird's neck, causing it to scream and wriggle about. With a sharp twist of his head, the bat broke the owl's neck with a sickening crack and the bird moved no more.

The three friends were frozen in place, too frightened to move. Melody even forgot that she needed to breath until the large bat turned his head to look at them, licking the blood off his razor sharp fangs. The girl shrank back from his predatory glare, scared that he might decide to attack them as well. Unexpectedly, a second spectral bat joined up with him. He was fatter and shorter, obviously not nearly as in good shape as his partner. He had dark teal wings and long blue hair with a pointed goatee on his chin. The newcomer slurped his tongue and chuckled, ready to chow down on the owl's carcass when the bigger bat stopped him. The blue spectral bat looked up at him with disappointment but controlled himself when he noticed that the smaller bats were watching.

The first large bat gave a silent sigh before smiling pleasantly at Shade, Marina and Melody. "Pardon my manners," he apologized with a Spanish accent. "I am Goth. And this…" he paused before grudgingly introducing his companion, "is my brother-in-law, Throbb."

Throbb nodded in greeting.

"Uh...hi...umm..." Shade replied, his voice shaking. He cleared his voice as he forced himself to recover. "My name is Shade, and this is Melody and Marina."

The girls winced.

Goth and Throbb flew over to where they were standing. This made Melody's fur to stand on end and she moved behind Shade and Marina, glaring fiercely at the large bats. Goth noticed her sudden hostility and spoke softly, "I have frightened you." Shade and Marina moved aside as Goth approached her, and gave her a slight bow and a charming smile. "Please forgive my brutish behavior. When I noticed that a lovely señorita such as yourself was being attacked by that owl, I had no choice but to come to your rescue. I haven't harmed you unintentionally, have I?"

Melody kept silent at first, not sure how to react to his flattery. Somehow she felt that he had a bit too much fun fighting the owl to really believe that he did it for her sake. Realizing that Goth was still waiting for a response, she began to nervously stammer, "yes...uh- oui! I-I mean sì. No...no. I mean _no. _I'm fine." _Crap, what the heck am I saying?_ She finally managed to speak clearly after taking a deep and calming breath, "thank you for saving my life."

Amused, Goth chuckled and straightened his back again, "it was my pleasure." He turned to address the rest of her friends, "we are new to these lands, torn away from our own."

_Yeah, what are you doing all the way up here in Canada? _Melody raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. Her eyes fell upon Goth's wrist where a bronze band was clipped around and it dawned upon her. Goth and Throbb must have had escaped from a conservatory or from somewhere. There was no way a human would just let them out into the wrong habitat.

Shade naively lowered his guard at Goth's words and quickly said, "oh, us too!'

Goth smiled, "we have much in common."

Shade nodded eagerly, clearly starting to idolize this guy.

The brunette couldn't help but feel that they were being lulled into a false sense of security. The way Goth spoke...it was as if he had a hidden motive. Melody had no idea if she was just being paranoid or if her gut instinct was onto something here. It just felt unnatural for a _false vampire bat _to be on friendly terms with smaller bats such as herself, Shade and Marina. She looked over to Marina, wondering about what she thought. The brightwing met her eyes and she knew by her worried face that Marina was thinking the same thing as she was.

"All we want is to get back home in the south," Goth continued. "But we cannot read these...uh…" he pointed up at the sky looking troubled, "northern stars."

"You can travel with the three of us!" Shade proposed without hesitation, "we are heading south to find my colony."

Marina gave a frightened gasp and Melody nearly choked on air.

"We'd be delighted," Goth smiled, accepting the invitation.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa!" Melody blurt out, raising her hands to pause what was happening. Realizing that she spoke louder than necessary and had four pairs of bewildered eyes on her, she giggled awkwardly. "Ehehehe...would you two kind gentlemen excuse us for a moment?" she asked sweetly as she slowly made her way to Shade and Marina.

"But of course. Please, take your time," Goth replied with a light hearted tone. When Melody dragged Shade away by the scruff of his mane followed by Marina, his lips curled downwards into a dark frown and his eyes flashed dangerously. _'That chica is proving to be more difficult than she's worth,' _he thought to himself; he would have to step up his game.

"Ow, Melody!" Shade protested as she dragged him away from the two large bats. When she finally was out of hearing range, she let go of his yellow fur. "Jeeze! What was that for?" the silverwing rubbed the back of his sore neck.

"Shade, have you finally gone mad?" Melody hissed loudly. "What do you think you're doing inviting those bats to travel with us?"

Shade shrugged, "why not? They seem really nice."

Melody slapped her palm over her face and let it slowly slide off. "That is not the issue here, Shade. Have you completely forgotten why we are on the birds' most wanted list? They said that _two giant bats _have been going around killing pigeons. What do you think is going to happen if they notice us traveling with the said _two giant bats?_"

"Haven't you seen that guy take on that owl? There is no way that a stupid bird would try and capture us with them around," Shade countered.

"I don't know, Shade," Marina moved to stand next to Melody, glancing distrustfully at the two big bats over her shoulder. "I have to agree with Melody. Something just doesn't sit right with me about those two. They are too...strange."

Shade laughed and shook his head, "oh stop being such worrywarts you two. All they want is to get back home just like us! Besides, what proof do you have that _they _are the ones who have been going around killing pigeons?"

"Goth just _killed _an owl in front of us," Melody replied with an _are-you-serious _expression.

"Yeah, to save _your _life," Shade folded his arms across his chest, his smile fading. "We need him and you know it, Melody. You owe him this much." He turned around and flew back to the spectral bats who were still waiting, ending their conversation.

Melody groaned and closed her eyes. He just _had _to pull the 'he saved you; you owe him' card, didn't he? As much as she hated it, Shade was right. Perhaps she was thinking too deeply into this. She shared one last mutual look with Marina before the two of them rejoined the group.

"Well, mis amigos," Goth began when they returned, "have you made your decision?"

"Yeah," Shade nodded with a smile. "Let's all travel together."

Melody's jaw tightened but she didn't say anything.

"Excellent! And in return, allow us to offer our protection," the tall spectral bat said.

Shade gave Melody a side glance that said '_I told you so.' _He turned back to Goth and accepted his offer. "It's a deal."

Goth grinned and Throbb chuckled, licking his mouth hungrily as he stared down at the three teenagers.

Melody noticed and glared at Throbb with distrust. No, she was right. There was something fishy going on here.

"Is there something troubling you, Melody?"

She flinched and her eyes moved to Goth, who tilted his head and wore an inquiring smile. To anyone else, it looked like a gesture of genuine concern. To her… it was almost like he was daring her to say 'yes.'

Melody forced herself to smile and shook her head, "no, not at all."

As they were getting ready to take off for their journey, Goth stopped Melody before she could follow her friends with his wing. Melody hesitantly looked up at him; his green eyes bore into her's so close that she could see her frightened face reflected in them. "As a friendly bit of advice from me, señorita-" he said in a semi-whisper, "you'd may want to practice your flying off the ground. There isn't always going to be someone around to save you."

_He saw that? _The girl swallowed hard and nodded slowly, "I'll keep that in mind."

He gave her a crooked smile before moving away and taking flight himself.

Melody watched her group fly away, her own wings shaking from what Goth told her.

_Oh...what have we gotten ourselves into?_

* * *

Chinook raced as fast as he could back to the water tower. "Owls!" he cried out once he reached the colony.

Startled, the colony began to fidget and became frightened.

Bathsheba approached the young bat and demanded, "what's this about owls?"

"There's a bounty on our heads and we- " Chinook tried to explain, but she cut him off.

"A bounty? Don't be ridicu-"

"Silverwings!" Frieda spoke up in a loud authoritative voice, "prepare to evacuate the roost!" There was no time to lose. The elder knew that ever since a troop of owls were patrolling the city, it meant that the colony was in danger.

* * *

Melody and her friends, along with Goth and Throbb made it out of the city and decided to take a well deserved rest in the forest. The three teenagers roosted next to each other on a tree branch, with Melody on the farther end, hanging as far away as possible from the newest additions to the group. Goth and Throbb stood below them on a neighboring branch, their wings wrapped around themselves like long elegant cloaks.

"How do you little bats survive this cold?" Goth asked as he held his wings tight around his body. "Where we are from, it is warm and sunny all year round."

'_Sounds like Florida', _Melody thought to herself as she shivered a little herself. "You are from a tropical climate, I take it?" she asked, though being a bat expert, she already knew the answer.

"Indeed we are, señorita. It makes a bat grow to a reasonable size," he spread open his huge wings in example and laughed, quite proud of this fact. "As a prince, I am a magnificent specimen even by my colony's standards."

Throbb chuckled before suddenly choking on something (probably a fly) and began to cough.

'_Quite flaunting, aren't you pal?' _Melody rolled her eyes, unimpressed by Goth's bragging. Though as much as she hated to admit it, Goth was the most handsome vampyrum spectrum that she did ever lay eyes on. He had fine strong muscles gracing his arms and a lean body. It came to no surprise to her if indeed he was considered to be royalty where he was from. Whichever scientist that captured him must have been quite excited to get to study him. She knew that she would. Melody stopped her train of thought and shook her head. For some reason, now that she was a bat- the idea of taking bats and studying them without their permission didn't sound very nice. Why did she like studying them again?

_'So you can help save them from a disease, that's why!' _her inner voice reminded forcefully.

Melody frowned. Having both a human and bat point-of-view...it was starting to get confusing.

"How'd you end up so far from home?" Marina asked.

The turn of the topic dimmed Goth's pride and he answered unwillingly, "oh uh- the royal guard was not acting with its ears wide open." He shared an uncomfortable look with Throbb who also had a frown on his face, apparently ashamed of this fact. "The daily humans captured us, banded us, and brought us here to be imprisoned." Goth clenched his fist tightly at the memory. He glanced over at Marina's band and said with a soft and entrancing voice, "I see you and your friend were also taken prisoner by those _smelly _humans, señorita," he chuckled softly and his green eyes met with Melody's. "Our common ground."

Melody stiffened and stuffed her own banded wrist under her other wing, hiding it from sight and looked away.

"It grows like the jungle vines," he mused with a smile.

Shade's interest was perked and he flew down next to Goth, "what's a jungle?"

"A jungle?" Goth looked surprised to hear that Shade didn't know what it was. "A jungle is an explosion of color! Born in the heat and the sun. We live as we choose in our jungle. With the warmth on our wings and our bellies never empty," he narrated as he described his homeland.

'_A prince and a poet,' _Melody smirked to herself as she listened. This dude sure had a certain way with words.

"We eat only the most succulent of small birds, the tastiest of lizards and other…" he leaned in closer Shade and grinned, "small animals."

Marina furrowed her eyebrows in suspicion, "hmm…"

"You don't say?" Melody crossed her arms across her chest. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Goth meant by 'other small animals.' Of course, she already knew what kind of diet Goth and Throbb thrived on. It just made her contemplate even more on how she could convince Shade to ditch these two before it was too late. "In other words, a jungle is the same thing as a forest, but hot and humid and filled with loads of exotic creatures."

Goth shrugged, not too happy that she ruined the atmosphere with her frankness, "a less romantic viewpoint but true nonetheless."

"Wow," Shade was completely won over by Goth's story. "Boy, I wish I was born in the jungle. It sounds incredible!"

Melody giggled, "are you sure you'd want that? I bet there would be worse predators out there than wolves and owls who would _love_ to have you for dinner."

Shade raised an eyebrow at her and challenged, "yeah? Like what?"

"Oh, you know...like piranhas, boa constrictors, jaguars-" Melody stopped when she caught the boy's confused expression. He had no idea what any of those things were. The girl realized that maybe she spoke too much. A normal silver-haired bat would never know such things and right now, Melody didn't exactly want Goth to suspect that she knew what he was. Revealing that the jig was up before its time could prove to be more dangerous than right now. "-and...stuff.." she ended awkwardly.

Goth flew up and landed on top of her branch, making it shake slightly under his weight. He crouched down and smiled toothily down at her, "You appear to be quite knowledgeable about the jungle, señorita. I am impressed."

The girl avoided his penetrating eyes and muttered, "not really...I've only heard stories of large cats, carnivorous fish, and snakes that suffocate their food." _Oh boy, go away. Please stop staring at me and go away._

"And have you heard stories about my kind?"

"Only of what you told us."

He seemed to think for a moment and a slow lazy smirk spread across his features. Without any warning, Goth swung over the branch until he was upside down next to Melody with his giant wings spread out as if ready to ensnare her in them.

Startled, Melody screamed and lost her grip on the branch. She tumbled down before managing to catch hold of another branch, hugging it with her wings for dear life as it shook up and down from the impact. Above her, Goth burst out laughing, holding his sides. Melody clung there, stupefied until she realized what just happened. She scowled and yelled up at him, "what the hell was that for?!"

"F-forgive me," Goth chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye with his claw. "You seem to be so stiff around me that couldn't help myself. Your reaction was amazing, señorita."

Shade flew down to Melody's branch, also in a fit of laughter. "Wow Melody, you look exactly like you did back when we first met."

"Oh hardy-har-har," the girl rolled her eyes, "just help me up, will ya?"

Shade offered her his hand and steadied her up on the branch and she brushed down her fur that was standing on end while muttering irritably to herself.

Marina flew down to her as well and was the only one who looked concerned, "are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Melody felt something sticking out of her hair somewhere in the back and felt that a small twig ended up being tangled up in it. She began to try to get it out but Marina stopped her.

"Here, let me. You are getting your hair even more tangled."

Melody sighed and let Marina take the twig out and brush out her hair with her fingers, "thanks…" There were no words to describe how happy she was that she had at least one person who was on her side of things. She glared up at Goth who just smiled charmingly back at her. The girl huffed and crossed her arms, feeling her face heat up. _Ok, maybe I am reading too much into this. Just because he is a carnivorous bat...it doesn't mean that he would eat us. Right? _Melody wasn't sure. Maybe Goth scared her in order to make her lighten up? Well- if that was his strategy, it was starting to work.

As she contemplated this, Zephyr's previous words echoed in her head.

"_You have a very useful gift of seeing things for what they truly are. It may very well save your life one day."_

* * *

The silverwing colony removed themselves from the water tower as the owls neared, squeaking in panic.

"That building, over there!" Mercury told Frieda as he pointed downwards.

She led her colony down into the sawmill, hoping that the owls will not find them in there. Unbeknownst to Frieda, the cardinal was sitting not too far away from the sawmill and saw everything. The owls that they saw prior were a diversion. He turned back to the army of owls behind him with a grin before they flew out of the trees and began to claw at the wooden building. The old wood easily broke as the owls tore through it with their talons.

Inside, the bats were trapped and had no idea what to do. Frieda began hastily looking for a way for her colony to escape and her eyes settled at the factory work of limber being automatically cut apart by the saw machine. She gasped as pieces of the roof were being clawed off. Soon the owls will make a big enough gap to enter. "This way! Keep it tight and be careful!" she ordered and began to lead the silverwings towards the saw machine.

The owls managed to slip into the building and gave chase after the bats. During the flight, one of the owls got hit in the head by a log and was knocked out cold. Frieda carefully maneuvered her colony through the hazardous machinery. One mistake could cause any bat to die be it by owl or being crushed to death by limber. Her colony nearly managed to slip away from a falling log. Having a plan form in her mind, she risked leading her colony towards the razor sharp saws that went up and down as the wood passed by.

Bathsheba gasped in horror as she realized what Frieda was doing, but there was no going back.

The silverwings luckily made it under the saw before it had the chance to swipe down at them. The cardinal, who was closing in on them also was lucky to swerve upwards as he saw that it would be too late to go in after them. Terrified, he gave up the chase. One of the owls was not so lucky and rammed into the saw, getting cut to pieces.

After the fatal loss of one of their members and the silverwings managing to fly outside and get away, the owls decided to stop before anymore of them got killed in the process. One of the owls glared down at the cardinal, giving him a final warning before retreating the rest of his flock.

* * *

"Enough about me," Goth said after answering Shade's constant questions about his colony and the jungle. In fact, he was talking for so long that the horizon began to brighten. Even Throbb got bored and left without anyone noticing. "What about you?"

"Oh, well…" Shade began. He was back hanging on the branch with the girls who were growing sleepy from listening to Goth's calming voice. It was as if that guy had sedatives in his vocal cords or something. "We silverwings live as we choose too!"

Melody raised an eyebrow at Shade. He was really trying hard to impress Goth. She would have included a '_please notice me senpai!' _joke in here if she wasn't so tired. Not that anyone would have got that joke anyway.

"Like that rule that bats can't look at the sun?" Shade grinned smugly and pointed at himself with his thumb, "well I did- ...and Melody too," he added quickly.

"No, no… keep the credit. I don't want it," Melody said in a bored monotone.

"And- as it turned out, the owls didn't like it…"

"Didn't like it?" Marina exclaimed, "they burnt down your roost! And Melody is labeled as a fugitive criminal!"

Shade glared at her, "yeah. I know that."

"Actually, I think all three of us are considered to be fugitive criminals by now," Melody inserted with her eyes closed, dozing out.

Goth frowned, "why did your males not save you?"

"They weren't there...they were waiting for us at stonehold," Shade told Goth who crouched down closer to them with his arms resting on his knees while listening intently. "That's where we were getting ready to migrate to before the owls attacked." Shade bared his fangs angrily at the memory before flying up to stand on his branch, his fists clenched. "I hate the owls!" he growled, "even more than I hate the treaty!"

"Treaty?"

"Basically, the bats were punished for not taking sides in the battle of the birds and the beasts," Shade informed the spectral bat bitterly. "That's why we have to fly at night." The boy flew little ways away, perching on a branch with his back to Goth and his friends.

Goth looked up at Shade over the side of his shoulder, deep in thought. An idea formed and a dark smile returned to his face. "I could bring an army of my species up from the south, and end this persecution once and for all."

"Huh? Wha-?" Melody blinked her eyes open, Goth's words bringing her back from her sleepy daze. _An army?_

Goth pointed at the boy, "you Shade, could be my commander-in-chief."

"Huh?" Shade was dumbstruck by the idea.

"I think you have the makings of a _great _warrior!"

Oh yeah, Shade was liking this more and more. Meanwhile, Melody was listening with a confused look on her face. _Shade? A warrior? Where is this guy coming up with all of this?_ Shade definitely did NOT have the makings of a commander-in-chief. Speaking of which, having an army of spectral bats travel all the way to Canada from South America sounded phony. Even if Goth was being serious, nothing good would come from it. Melody felt her suspicions about Goth rise up again.

"Your father must be very proud," the bat prince complimented Shade.

Shade's smile faded and he gave a sad sigh. "I- ...don't have a father. Uh- Cassiel, my dad...disappeared while scouting one night. They say the owls got him."

Goth flew up to Shade and placed a hand around the boy's shoulders and spoke with a consoling soft tone, "ah, a boy without a father." When Shade wasn't looking, Goth gave a dubious grin...something that the girls both didn't miss.

Marina and Melody gave each other worried looks. As the morning birds started chirping, the girls huddled close together getting ready to sleep while Shade still stayed up to talk to Goth. "We have to talk to Shade," Melody whispered tiredly to her friend. "I don't know what's going on but I have a gut-wrenching feeling that won't go away."

"Me too," Marina replied quietly. "Those giant bats are giving me the creeps. We'll talk to Shade first thing in the evening."

Coming to an agreement, the girls comfortingly rested their heads against each other as they somewhat fearfully fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh Goth, my darling! Where have you been these past 12 chapters? Hehehehe! Finally! I was dying to get to this episode for months now! So what do you guys think of Melody's interaction with Goth? It sure didn't go as I planned, not that my plans have much power here anyway. And Shade, you poor-poor little idiot, but we all still love you. And poor Throbb, hardly having any screen time. I sure hope you all had just as much fun reading this chapter as I had writing it. I'll see you all in lucky number 13!

**Carlisle Fan 22: **No problem! I'm always open for suggestions though I may not always use them. Don't worry, I'm sure that Melody will someday strengthen her wings up so she could take off normally. Maybe not as soon as we all might like since it hasn't even been a week since she first turned into a bat. Thanks for the review!

**devildog452: ***thumbs up*

**mchap1154: **Lol! Easy there partner. No need to get so excited...oh who am I kidding. YEAAAAAAHHHH! GOTH AND THROBB ARE IN THE HOUSE BABY! Bring out the boombox and the sparkling cider! We are having a party tonight! I mean really, who doesn't love a good diabolical villain? I'm very happy that you enjoyed ch. 11. Thanks a bunches of bananas! :D

**PalaeoPanthalassa: **Awww, thank you! I've been doing my best to somehow put my twist on this story while staying true to it. I had lots of fun brainstorming on how to incorporate Melody into all of this and what changes she might give. I'm really glad that I'm doing something right. :) Thank you very much for the review!


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